Giving Thanks

it is Thanksgiving and so i am reflecting on what i am thankful for. the thing that sticks out in my mind the most is, i am thankful that i am not the same person i was 2 years ago. as i go through my last year of undergrad college, i look back at my first year on a scared, anxious, heartbroken girl. by her second year she was lost, lonely, and beaten down to the point of giving up. she may not look much different on the outside but she has gone through a transformation on the inside. my quest to find and understand myself is not over but the world is beginning to make sense again. i am thankful to God that He protected me even in my darkest moments; that he stayed the blade at my throat when i believed all hope was lost (this is a metaphor!!) i was right. there is no hope, no point, no purpose, no life.... without Christ. but with Him all things are possible. i still struggle with this idea sometimes which is why i so identify with Solomon in Ecclesiastes. "Meaningless, meaningless everything is meaningless" but thank God that, that is not all there is.