Thankful Thursday~"Grace Alone"

This doesn't seem like a "Thankful Thursday". Our church and our community are grieving deeply with and for our pastor and his family in the death of their 16-year-old son on Tuesday. But in the midst of the questions to which there will probably never be answers and the tears that seem unending, expressions of thankfulness, amazingly, weave their way through every gathering and every conversation:

We are thankful to know that Aaron is, right now, with Jesus.

We are thankful for the impact that he has had on everyone around him.

We are thankful for Bro. Kent, Sarah, Adam, and Andrew...for their faith, even as they walk through the deepest grief imaginable, for all they have taught us, for the blessing of being their church family. We love them so much!

We are thankful that, as Sarah kept saying over and over again last night...We do not grieve as those who have no hope. (I Thess. 4:13)

We are thankful that God is good, all the time, that this did not come as a surprise to God, that He is sovereign and sufficient and faithful.

We are thankful for God's glory and love seen in *every little detail* in which He has worked these past two days.

We are thankful for the love of the body that has overflowed during the past 48 hours as we have ached, prayed, cried, and comforted together.

We are so thankful for Lyndel and Pam, who have been handed an enormous load and handled it with incredible grace.

And I am so very, very thankful for the many amazing expressions of sorrow turned to praise that have been evident in the past few days in our church family/youth, in the Sweatmans' other family and friends, and especially in Bro. Kent and Sarah and the boys. There has been an almost continual awareness that it is truly only by God's grace that any of us make it through the next minute.

Yet another choir song that just says it so perfectly...

Grace Alone

Every promise we can make
Every prayer and step of faith
Every difference we can make
Is only by His grace.

Every mountain we will climb
Every ray of hope we shine
Every blessing left behind
Is only by His grace

Grace alone Which God supplies
Strength unknown He will provide
Christ in us, our cornerstone
We will go forth in grace alone.

Every soul we long to reach
Every heart we hope to teach
Everywhere we share His peace
Is only by His grace.

Every loving word we say
Every tear we wipe away
Every sorrow turned to praise
Is only by His grace.

~Scott Wesley Brown and Jeff Nelson

Thankful Thursday can be found at Iris's perfectly titled blog, Grace Alone.