To The One Whose Heart Is Heavy This Thanksgiving

I don’t know what your Thanksgiving table looks like this year. Maybe it’s surrounded by people who love you, but there’s still a gaping hole where your baby should be. Maybe you’re smiling for pictures while your heart is breaking. Maybe you’ve opted out of gathering altogether because it just feels like too much. If your heart feels heavy today, I want you to know this: you’re not alone.

There is no guilt in weeping. Even Jesus wept. The One who knew the end of the story. The One who knew the resurrection, the restoration, and the joy set before Him still let tears fall when death touched the ones He loved. Your tears don’t mean you’ve failed. They mean you’re human. They mean your love was (and still is) deep.

And if you feel like you’re barely holding on to hope, there’s no shame in that either. The God who knit you together doesn’t despise your weakness. He meets you in it. He’s not asking you to muster up a cheerful heart or pretend everything’s okay. He’s simply inviting you to come. Just as you are. With honest ache and hollow places. With trembling trust and whispered thanks. The truth is, grief and gratitude are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes they sit side by side. Sometimes thanksgiving looks less like a feast and more like reaching for the hem of His robe.

We may look at today, and ahead into the coming Christmas season, with a mix of trepidation and trust. We may not know how we’re going to make it through, but we know the One who walks with us. And because of that, we can say, even through tears: Jesus, thank You. Thank You for holding me when I don’t know how to hold myself together. Thank You for weeping with me. Thank You for promising to restore all that is broken. Thank You that this aching isn’t the end of the story.

Dear Hope Mom, if Thanksgiving feels more like lament than celebration this year, it’s okay. You are not doing it wrong. You are walking through sorrow, and the Lord sees you. He will not waste your suffering. He is near to the brokenhearted. And one day, the feast to come will swallow every shadow of grief. Until then, we sit at the table, perhaps with tears in our eyes, and we say it still: Jesus, thank You. You are enough.

Because He lives, I hope,
Jennie

Jennie is the Executive Director for Hope Mommies. She and her husband Brian live in Oregon and have four children together— Trenton, Paige who has been in Heaven with Jesus since 2010, Mason, and Cora. If you were to knock on her front door today, you’d find her in something comfortable drinking a hot cup of tea, while trying to figure out how to balance all the things that make up a life. She enjoys spending time in God’s word, fresh flowers, board games with her kids, cooking, and evening walks in her neighborhood. She adores being a new creation in Christ and prays she reflects Him well on this earth.