Happy Thanksgiving, David
It’s Thanksgiving Day and yes, we’re giving thanks. And it’s no surprise the holidays are very hard this year for our family. There’s an empty seat at our table.
I’ve been asked by a few people in this community to please tell you more about David. Between you who asked and a spiritual director who advised me to bring David into all of my work, this Thanksgiving, I give thanks to God the Father of all good things, for David.
Thank you, Lord, for giving us 28 years with our remarkable son. Thank you that I got to be his mum.
Thank you that he was always alert and energetic, and squeezed out all there was of this life. Thank you that David sparred with me from the time he was a little one. Thank you for helping me raise him, because it wasn’t always easy.
Thank you that he was a challenger. He would not settle for excuses for ignorance and injustice.
Thank you for giving us his life verse: “What does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Thank you that he had my eyes.
Thank you that we shared temperaments of passion and always wanting to “take the hill!”
Thank you, Lord, that his mind was sharp and expansive and he wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions, nor face the consequences for disrupting people’s views of You or the church.
Thank you for his absurd humor. Thank you that he loved listening to great comedians like Tig Nataro, Gary Gullman, Todd Barry, and more. Thank you that he loved to laugh!
Thank you for his brave, adventurous spirit that took him from undergraduate at Gordon College to a year at Oxford University, then to Harvard University for graduate school.
Thank you that he was a man who loved the nations. Thank you that Asia was a particular focus for him. Thank you for allowing him to live in Shanghai for two and a half years, to learn to speak Mandarin and to connect with the most beautiful people while living there.
Thank you for his calling that led him to pursue a career in International Trade Law or U.S./China relations.
Thank you that he loved and followed you, even though he walked away from the church for a while. You answered my deepest prayer for his life, “God, please drive his heart to Yours.” And You did. Oh, thank you!
Thank you that he brought the party by gathering friends and family, feeding us with his incredible cooking, and getting us dancing with his music. Thank you that he was adventurous in finding the most fabulous collection of music and synthesizing it in a way that had us thinking deeply, then surprised us, got us laughing, and dancing!
Thank you that he was a gatherer of people. How he loved people! Thank you for his phenomenal friends from every walk of life. From grade school to high school, undergraduate at Gordon College, a year at Oxford University, to Harvard University graduate school.
Thank you that David’s mind was a sponge. David was a perpetual learner. Thank you for his room full of books, most of which he actually read – including his favorite, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace .
Thank you for his excellence in writing. Thank you for allowing him to be published a few times, including in TheWashington Postand The Boston Globe.
Thank you for brilliant people who love and follow You and knew how to point David to you, like Tim Keller, Henri Nouwen, and other great thinkers with wild, godly hearts.
Thank you that I have a million memories of our truly wonderful life together.
Thank you, Lord, that David always first belonged to you. Thank you that You taught me that my invitation was to love him and raise him and point him to You so David would one day return to his actual home and heavenly Father.
Thank you, Lord, that David didn’t breathe his last until he had fulfilled the days of his life on earth, which according to your written Word, were already appointed him before You laid the foundations of the earth (Psalm 139:16).
Thank you, O God, that David is now cheering us on as part of the Great Cloud of Witnesses (Hebrews 12:1).
I’m still gutted. The immense gratitude for his life causes horrendous grief.
Deliberately remembering David on this Thanksgiving Day 2021 makes our loss so visceral and potent, but it’s because he mattered so very much. I’m tremendously grateful for his beautiful, vibrant life.
What’s Thanksgiving like in Heaven, honey?
Blessings in abundance to each of you,
~Nancy