by Katie Julius
The month of November is often one where we focus on the things for which we are thankful. While we should always be grateful and be looking for things in our lives to give thanks for, it tends to happen in a more intentional way this time of year.
Some years, it may be a lot easier to find things to be thankful for. Someone got a promotion at work. One of your kids (finally) mastered multiplication. You welcomed a new addition to your family.
Other years, it might be a little harder to identify those things. Maybe you are mourning the loss of a loved one. Perhaps you have experienced a job loss. Maybe you’re going through a really challenging situation that has negatively affected you and your family. It’s in these circumstances that we can still find things to be thankful for, but we might have to look a little harder.
You’ve probably heard the saying that “every cloud has a silver lining,” meaning that there is always something positive to find, even in the midst of storms. For those of us who are believers, the reason we can look for those silver linings is because we have assurance of hope through Christ.
We can’t always understand why things happen the way they do. But we can know that they all work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). Now, that doesn’t mean that the end result is going to feel “good” to us. In fact, it could very well be the opposite (at least in man’s terms). “Good” things can be hard to find when you unexpectedly lose a spouse. They can be hard to find when you have been without a steady income for more than a year. They can be hard to find when you lose friendships through conflict. It can be hard to be thankful in situations like that.
But, we have to trust God. He may not have planned for these things to happen, but He does allow them to happen as a result of our sinful, fallen world. Maybe He did plan for this to happen in your life because He has something even better in store for you. We all go through seasons in life. Fall and winter is when the leaves start to fall and the pruning takes place. Without that process, the yield in the spring and summer would not be the same.
We will experience heartache, sorrow, pain, and loss in this life. But through it all, the “good” is that God will be glorified. And that’s a silver lining worth finding and giving thanks for.