I extend to you and your families a joyous and blessed Thanksgiving. Some of you will gather at tables later today, and most everyone you love will be there. Bless you! Others will gather at tables, and there will be an empty chair where a loved one should be ... but is not. Bless you! Still others will not gather at a table at all. Your life may be filled with heartache or loneliness or hardship, and you may be in no mood to be thankful. May God especially bless you ... and somehow fill you with hope and praise. That is my Thanksgiving prayer for us this day; that God will fill our hearts with thanks and praise. "God of grace, on this day of Thanksgiving, we come before you with prayers of gratitude, and prayers of need. We look to you, Lord Jesus, to give us what is necessary, confessing…