Ordinary Time 
Pause
Satisfied
Thriving
Filled Full
Abundant
Goodness
Pure Joy
More Than Enough
You Won’t Lack a Thing
These words, pulled from our readings for this week, describe life as God intended. A life overflowing with all the good things God longs to give us.
This week of Thanksgiving, let’s open our eyes to notice what God has given us, open our hands to receive God’s blessing, open our hearts to receive God’s love, and open our arms to share God’s abundance with others.
Listen
Keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him, because the Lord your God is bringing you to a wonderful land, a land with streams of water, springs, and wells that gush up in the valleys and on the hills; a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without any shortage—you won’t lack a thing there—a land where stone is hard as iron and where you will mine copper from the hills. You will eat, you will be satisfied, and you will bless the Lord your God in the wonderful land that he’s given you.
Deuteronomy 8:6-10
Think
I don’t know about you, but I want to live in a place like the one described in our reading for today! In fact, this is exactly what God longs to give to us; it’s what we were created for. And this is what God promised the Israelites when God brought them out of slavery in Egypt; but the Israelites were so self-absorbed and whiny that God let them wander around in the wilderness for 40 years until they were ready to recognize God. God didn’t abandon them in the wilderness; God walked every step with them and met their needs. But the Israelites were so busy complaining that they often failed to notice God.
Even now, God is at work in the circumstances of our everyday lives, walking alongside us, meeting our needs. Do we pause and notice? If we don’t, we might struggle through the wilderness for a while. If we do, perhaps we will recognize that God is giving us our own wonderful land where we will be satisfied and won’t lack a thing.
Ann Whitfield Carter
Pray
God, open my eyes to notice you every day, in every place, in every circumstance. Thank you for giving me all that I have. Help me be grateful. Amen.
Go
Notice all you have been given and thank the Giver.
Notice God at work and thank the Giver.
Notice God beside you and thank the Giver.
Notice God inside you and thank the Giver.
Notice God in others and thank the Giver.
Notice God in nature and thank the Giver.
Notice the need around you, open your arms to share, and thank the Giver.
Notice.
Just look around where you are right now.
And thank the Giver.
