Maybe you don’t have a pair of Thank You Socks, but I do. Maybe you have never heard of any such thing as Thank You Socks. Neither had I until the following came to pass.
I have a pair of green and white striped socks a friend gave me. I ended up using them to keep warm my beloved paralyzed ministry dog Mr. Simeon’s feet when I would bundle up him and paralyzed dog Miss Mercy with 2 winter coats each and scarves around their heads and walk them in their wheelchairs on the freezing cold streets of New York City when I was doing ministry work there.
I had my beloved Mr. Simeon for 9 years before I tragically lost him. He and I had a phenomenally wonderful bond with one another. Intensified because he could only move a few inches without his wheelchair whereas Miss Mercy could scoot and drag around on her knees. I had to do everything for him, and he trusted me completely.
Mr. Simeon was one of my greatest blessings ever – and one of my greatest tragic losses. I have only made it through that loss by the love, comfort, and grace of God and the decision to press on in ministry loving and serving God and others with all my heart rather than look back and endlessly mourn.
When I looked at those socks in my closet one day a few years after I lost him, the words Thank You Socks came to mind. Why? I believe the tangible memories of those and that which we have lost can present to us a choice.
To endlessly grieve and even become bitter and self-pitying and stuck and even paralyzed in our lives by our loss and to never move past the grief – or to THANK THE LORD for the time He gave us with those and that which we have lost. And to treasure the memories when they arise.
You may not have Thank You Socks, but perhaps there is something else in your life you have thought of as nothing more than a reason to shed more tears regarding something or someone you have lost.
I wonder if the Lord might lead you to begin to see the tangible memories of whom and what you have lost as opportunities to THANK THE LORD for the time He so blessedly and graciously gave you. And to treasure the memories when they arise.
May the Lord bless you, comfort you, heal you, give you hope, and draw you into a forever intimate personal ever-growing relationship with Himself.
“in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV