Thankful Thursday

Flowering quince

My thankful list:

Longer days, warmer weather, new flowers to discover in the garden. 

The current sermon series in the minor prophets.  It's wonderful to see how the prophets testify to Jesus Christ.

I'm grateful for God's provision, but quickly fell into the trap that I was the one who needed to ensure it would continue by working above and beyond what was expected of me.  This was not good for me or my daughter.  So I'm thankful for grace and conviction to stop overworking myself. 

This quote from Hugh Binning:

Men that lack children often supply their want by adopting some beloved friend in place of a son; and this is a kind of supply of nature for the comfort of those who lack.  But it is strange that God, having a Son, so glorious, the very expression of his person, and the brightness of his glory, in whom he delighted from eternity; strange, I say, that he should in a manner lose and give away his only-begotten Son, that he might by this means adopt others, poor, despicable creatures, to be his sons and daughters.  Certainly, this is an act infinitely transcending nature, such an act as has an unsearchable mystery in it, into which angels desire to look, and never cease looking, because they never see the bottom of it.  It was not out of need he did it, not for any need he had of us, or comforts expected from us, but absolutely for our necessity and consolation, that he might have those upon whom to pour the riches of his grace.

The Sinner's Sanctuary, Sermon 37, in Christian Love by Hugh Binning, Banner of Truth, page 88.