Thanksgiving

Sunday,  several of us went to the Western Illinois Correctional Center to visit Phil.  He seemed to be in good spirits and doing fairly well.  Our visit helped me get my mind focused as we entered Thanksgiving week.  It reminded me to be thankful for my Christian upbringing, my supportive family, and my Faith and Fellowship.

I chatted with a couple of the guards while they were searching our vehicle and again while being "patted down" about what some visitors try to sneak into the prison and how they do it.  Everything from hiding drugs in their baby's diaper to weapons in their underwear.  As one guard said,"There are a lot of stupid people in this world".

I am the 2%! 
And I help feed the 98%. 
I "occupy" a combine in the fall, a tractor in the spring, and a hog building much of the rest of the year.  I am an American Farmer. 
And I am thankful.

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the creator triumphantly raise.
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who still guides us on to the end of our days.
God's banners are o'er us, His light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night.
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished
As forward we travel from light into light.

His law he enforces, the stars in their courses And sun in its orbit obediently shine;
The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains, The deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine.
We too should be voicing our love and rejoicing;
With glad adoration a Song let us raise
Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving:
"To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!"

And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
John 6:11