He’s in the mess.

If you are in the south being messy is pretty much a staple for everything.

If your funny -your a mess.

If your happy -your a mess.

If your sad -your a mess.

If your frazzled -your a mess.

If your dirty -your a mess.

Southerns, do I tell it or what?

I can’t tell you how many times I have said, “girlfriend is a mess” and it has meant five different things.

I’ve been a mess more times than once. But [on a more serious note] one of the things I have come to discover in this life is that: broken lives are messy.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and most of us will gather around tables filled with incredible foods, great fellowship and create those hallmark commercial type moments. There will be tension in our families over who is cooking the turkey and there will be a relative here or there who will spit out a rude comment or two [or three]. Pictures will be taken and placed in scrapbooks and on facebook albums to commemorate Thanksgiving 2010.

But, today I’m looking past the hallmark type moments. Passed the fake smiles. Passed the pretty table tops and passed the incredible food.

I’m looking into my heart.

There’s some messy things in there. Disappointment. Fear. Hurt. Struggles. No…I don’t mean anything extreme has happened in my life, but the fact is…there is some brokenness in there -as there is in your life.

[And if everything is picture-perfect in your little world, feel free to “x” out of this post.]

God has been good. He has been faithful. I have much to be thankful for. But the fact is, my life can look very messy at any given point during the day. I get caught up in the same garbage that you do.

Recently though, God’s been showing me through the Bible how much though we will really find Him…in the mess.

In the book of Ruth is where I saw it this week.

Brief synopsis of this inspiring book would look a little like this:

Ruth falls in love. Marries boy. He dies. She’s left with the MIL [Naomi]. Naomi’s other son dies. Ruth sticks around. The End. [Or not]

There’s a lot more to that book, I would encourage you to read it. Where I want to pick up today is in Ruth chapter 2. Believe it or not, I see there is a Thanksgiving message in there.

Naomi and Ruth are trying to settle into their new lives. But it was tough. They were hurting, poor and afraid of the future. But, it was a time of harvesting. And in the fields there were leftovers from the harvesters. It was allowed for the poor to come behind the workers and pick up whatever they could find. But it was scarce and there were many gleaners. So Ruth asked permission to go up behind everyone and she eagerly did so when approved.

“So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters.” -Ruth 2:3

Basically, Ruth was picking up the mess of the harvesters. And in doing that she found great favor in the eyes of the owner of the field, Boaz. Long story short, she ending up becoming the wife of Boaz. Ruth and Naomi began to experience happiness in the midst of their tragic circumstances.

The truth-filled message in that: She found the blessings in the leftovers, in the mess.

And for some, I know this Thanksgiving doesn’t seem to bring a lot to be thankful for. Marriages have broken, money is tight, kids are making bad choices, jobs are lost, and sickness is dwelling.

You feel like it would take nothing for some sweet southern woman to look you in the eyes and say, “Honey, you are a mess.”

But what if this Thanksgiving season God’s asking us to look at our mess and find the blessing? Messy lives leave broken pieces. All over sometimes. And what if we need to come up behind someone else, [who is harvesting a full load of blessing] and bend down to pick up our pieces…our leftovers…our blessing.

Because if the blood of Jesus will cover all my mess, He will cover all your mess too.

God found favor on a desperate woman in a field picking up little pieces of leftover grain. Do you not believe that He would find favor on a woman coming up in her own field who is picking up little pieces of hope? He will.

Can you imagine taking up those little pieces of hope and began harvesting them?

We don’t know what God will do with our leftovers. But we know -He wants to help us. He wants to heal us. He wants to take our crumbs and do more than we could ever believe.

So this Thanksgiving, whether you feel like it or not…your harvest is full. It may look like a big mess right now, but He is in the mess.

He is breathing favor on your direction.

He has the answer within your reach.

He is not defeated.

He is your breakthrough.

He is more than enough reason to be thankful.