I’m counting down the minutes to the holidays. Each 24 hours brings me one day closer to seeing one of my daughters—both of whom live too far away.
Sadly, though, for too many people, the holidays bring sadness. Maybe a loved one is now gone and the holidays bring fresh pain. Or maybe their loved ones are all fine, but not fine with them. Or worse, not fine with Christ.
Relationships can be our greatest source of joy and sorrow. As much as we long for all our loved ones to know Christ as their Savior, we can’t make them believe.
My friend Katie Laitkep knows this struggle and offers us (un)expected hope.
“What if this year, gratitude includes trusting that God is still softening hearts—even the ones that seem impossible to crack open?”
I say the hope is (un)expected because, as Katie reminds us, God does the impossible. With God, hope should always be expected, never unexpected. But in our humanness (at least in mine), I have to be reminded, which Katie does well:
“There is always more mercy unfolding than any of us can measure.”
Enjoy this excerpt of Katie’s article below and click the links below to read the full article on Revive Our Hearts.
No Heart Too Hard: Thanksgiving and the Power of God’s Mercy
(Below is an excerpt of the article by Katie Laitkep. To read the full article, click here or on the link after the excerpt.)
As you head into the Thanksgiving holiday, there’s no end to the lists running through your mind: groceries you need to buy, travel plans and dietary accommodations of your guests, and items scattered throughout the house that your children need to make disappear before the doorbell rings.
Once you sit down at the dinner table on Thursday, you may find yourself making a few more mental lists, some that you’d never write down on a pad of paper. You file away the comments—political jabs, prejudiced remarks, or rude criticism—things you can’t believe a family member said out loud. You smile politely, try not to roll your eyes, and do what you can to maintain civility as long as the meal lasts.
Then you glance down the table and catch sight of the seat that’s been empty for years. You think of all the excuses that person has made for not coming home—all the reasons they said they needed distance. That list hurts too much to think about.
You turn your attention back to your guests and the activity at hand: writing down what you’re grateful for. Your pen hovers over the page, and you find yourself thinking of those whose absence, stubbornness, or hardness of heart feels heavier than you’d like to admit.
Somewhere along the way, have you stopped expecting that God is able to move in their story? What if this year, gratitude includes trusting that God is still softening hearts—even the ones that seem impossible to crack open?
Three Glimpses of God’s Mercy in Unexpected Places
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Katie Laitkep was working as a hospital teacher when God called her to join Revive Our Hearts as a staff writer. She serves remotely from Houston, Texas, where God sustains her through saltwater beaches, Scripture, and her local church. Her weekly newsletter, On the Horizon, encourages readers to live in light of the reality that today we’re one day closer to being home with Jesus. To receive this newsletter and her blog posts in your inbox, subscribe on Substack.
