A few days before Thanksgiving, my physical therapist asked, “ For what are you thankful?” I replied, “Honestly, at this point in time, not much.” My husband had died four days after Thanksgiving last year and I was trying not to focus on his death.

The next day I regretted my words; so, standing in the kitchen, I reluctantly began a list. God, family and friends, my dog Jaz and …. what I consider the ideal stove top, which came with the newer home. I gave up and went into the office to listen to a sermon from Santa Barbara Community Church on my i Pad. It was from the book of Galatians; and well into the sermon, Genesis 15:1 was given as a reference. I looked it up in my Bible.

Next to it I had written two notes, “God gave me this verse 11/24/16,” and “Len (my husband) died 11/28/16.” I had underlined, “Do not be afraid,… I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Len and I had decided that we needed to downsize and so we had put on the market the home that we had lived in for 30 years. Like Abram, the one to whom God was speaking, we didn’t know where we were going and we were relying completely on God to direct us.

After Len died I clung to that verse for support. It took nine months to find a buyer for our older home and move into a newer one. Somewhere in the process of moving, handling finances, adjusting to new house mates (our daughter and her two boys) and a new town, I let go of that verse. And then in 2017, facing a thankless Thanksgiving, God needed to remind me that He was still my shield and exceedingly great reward. I added a word to my skimpy, thankful list, ‘personal’. My God is a personal God.