November 27, 2024. Giving Thanks to God and to people on THANKSGIVING DAY

 Dear Jesus,

I thank God the Father for His  infinite love, for creating my soul in His image.

 He is Light and Love, so my soul also has light coming from Him. He has placed the seeds of love deep in my soul. He created me from eternity, before the universe and the earth existed. With Him, I have everything, without Him, I am nothing. His Love is an infinite power, greater than all the powers known to man. The love that He placed in my soul will heal  body, mind, and spirit, mending the broken relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, friends and friends... He poured that love into me and told me to distribute it to everyone I meet on this earthly path full of scorching sun, suffering, sadness, loss, separation... 

Thank you Jesus, my First Love, my Master, my Lord, for walking with me. Your Holy Spirit has always been in me, helping me for so many years on this earthly path, even though I did not realize it. 

So many blessings  I wrongly thought were due to my own strength. You helped me to meditate, to understand the meaning of life. You let me look back at the path you walked for 33 years, especially the last 3 years of your life on earth. You taught me to live in Love.

 Love is the lesson I have to learn when I come here. You told me to love as you loved us. It is so difficult, how can I follow Your path, when You loved us and accepted to die on the cross?

 Truly, no love more noble than the love of one who sacrifices his life for the one he loves.

I thank Mother Mary, who has saved me and my family from so many dangers, times I knew, and times I did not know. 

You are the Mother of Jesus who came to earth as a human, and you are also my Mother, loving and caring for me.

Many thanks to the Guardian Angels who always follow my footsteps on these dangerous paths of life, saving me and my family many times without my knowing.

Thanks to my earthly parents. They have been gone for a long time. I remember them with much gratitude.

"Going all over the world, no one is as good as mother. 

The burden of life, no one is as miserable as father.

 The vast ocean cannot measure a mother's love. 

The vast sky cannot cover a father's merit." 

I don't know who wrote these beautiful sentences, but they show me how much the parents love their children.

Many thanks to my beloved wife who has been with me through so many years since the day we met up to now, more than 60 years, sharing joys, sorrows, hardships, and difficulties, without ever complaining or blaming.

 Thank you Kim Chi for turning my heart to the Supreme Being, for comforting, helping, and encouraging me when life seemed to be at a dead end and disappointing. 

Thank you Kim Chi for helping me raise our children to be good people, always telling them to never forget God, and not to live against their conscience for any worldly gain.

Lots of thanks to my 3 beloved children and 5 grandchildren who have brought joy, and laughter to warm our golden years.

Thank you Vietnam, my homeland for raising me. 

Thank you Danang, my hometown, where I was born, for preserving so many childhood memories. Thank you to all the cities  where I have lived for a while: Da Nang, Hue, Long Xuyen, Da Lat, Saigon. Thank you to all the roads I have traveled during my stay in Vietnam.

 Thank you Indonesia, and the gentle people there, who, although poor, loved us during the days when we came to the deserted island. 

Thank you, Mr. Tran Ngoc Chau, former congressman of South Vietnam, who was on the same boat to escape the country. You have bought me a bowl of rice put on a banana leaf and a can of Coca-Cola.

 Thank you to Dr. Tubagus on Letung Island who gave me a pair of pants, and to another person whose name I forgot, who gave me a shirt when I only had one set of clothes on. 

Thank you to Akarim’s father (Akarim was the Lord of the island) who let my family stay for a while in his kitchen, instead of living on the island without a shelter.

 Oh, Indonesia the Beautiful, country of 16,000 islands with blue seas, green forests, blue skies, and rows of coconut trees swaying in the wind. I have never had the chance to return to say thank you. 

Thank you Sybil N. from Switzerland, my dear pen pal who did not forget me and sent me 200 USD, while I was on the island. God bless our friendship for 67 years since we wrote to each other beginning  the year 1957.

Thank you to the United States for welcoming my family as a second homeland.

 Thank you President Carter who opened this country to the Vietnamese refugees. Now you reach the end of your life, may God bless you and your family. 

Thank you to the Founding Fathers of the United States: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison who dedicated this country to God, and engraved the four words “In God We Trust” on the Dollar. The United States is the only country in the world that puts its trust in God. I always believe that the United States will always move forward in prosperity, in love, and be the elder brother of the free world.

I thank all the interstate freeways going North and South or East and West, up high passes, down deep ravines, across scorched deserts... Remembering the workers who sweated in the scorching sun, freezed in the  snow, sometimes sacrificing their lives to make the roads smooth, I travel today.

Thank you to everyone in today's society.

Thank you to all the doctors in clinics or hospitals who care about my family's health.

Thank you to the people working for the garbage department who clean up the city I live in, clean up the household, recycle trash, and yard waste 3 days a week.

I can't say enough about the farmers who help my family with so many daily tasks such as bringing vegetables, fruits to grocery stores, from planting to harvesting, so that the family can have nutritious meals.

Thank you the Native Indians who accepted the first newcomers coming from Europe in the 17th century and helped them the first few years.

Oh, how many blessings God has given me through people in society, how can I count them all, remember them all, write them all on these two or three pages.

Thank you to all the friends who have come to me through the BLOG page. 

They came to understand Father's love, they came to be blessed.

 Thank you Father for "using me as an instrument of Thy peace", carrying Your love letters around the world. Please keep me safe and sound so that I could continue to be your mailman.

Dear Jesus,

 I think I must write a book to tell You about all Thanksgivings instead of these short pages. Now I understand that each year there is not just one Thanksgiving Day, but each day I live is a Thanksgiving Day, thanks to God and thanks to people.

Please let me know You, and let me know myself. Knowing You, allow me to listen to Your Word, and practice what You teach. Knowing me, to change my path to your righteous one, to have Heaven in my heart, and You will be with me forever.

 May God bless the body and soul of those who read this meditation in my BLOG." Amen.