Overwhelmed by Love

Today I have spent much of the day feeling overwhelmed by love. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and my family is far away. Like most hospital employees, I'm required to work Thanksgiving or Christmas. I volunteered for Turkey Day and thus, from 2:45-11:15 pm tomorrow, will be serving the lovely folks at Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital. Yet, the number of Thanksgiving invitations I have received has been astounding. Some from people who know I'm not heading back to California, others just making sure if I'm in the area I have a place. Some from friends I know well, others from people I've barely met. Some to be with families here in PA, others to travel out of state. Unbelievable. Then, when I've shared with my inviters the news that I have to work, come the follow-up invitations to join families the night before, or come by afterward for leftovers. I am touched. I praise God for all the blessings in my life, but at this moment I am brimming with thanks for the wonderful people he has placed in it. When I moved out to Philadelphia last May, part of me wondered if I was making the right call. I arrived alone, unsure of why I still felt so called to the area when what I thought was one of my main motivations no longer existed. However, since the moment I unpacked my few belongings into an empty apartment room, I have had few doubts that this is exactly where I belong....maybe not forever, but for now. I came here for reasons far bigger than my own and fit into a plan far grander than my life. Things have not happened in the ways I would have thought, but they have happened in extraordinary ways. I have entered into new families amongst my church, my classmates, and my roommates. And my heart is full. I have been all over the world these past few years, and yet the love of God continues to surround me. To my friends and family in far away places, California, Europe, South America, and to those close by, thank you for the million ways you bless my life! My God bless you fully! Happy Thanksgiving.