Two turkeys were standing in the barn lot in casual conversation. The one turkey said to his friend: “I don’t know about you, but I always give thanks the day after Thanksgiving!”
What is Thanksgiving? Traditionally, it has come to represent family and friends gathered together to enjoy a day of fun, food, and football. But, at least here in America, it has become a legal and encouraged holiday.
The first Thanksgiving Day, of sorts, was celebrated by our Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Colony in 1621, and it had been sporadically celebrated until 1863 when Abe Lincoln, President, set aside the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Gratitude toward a merciful God was the intent of his actions.
However, over the years it has mostly become the one day per year when insincere people give insincere gratitude to a God they do not even know.
For many years, Thanksgiving had opened the door to a holiday season filled with selfishness, greed, debt, and guilt! But in recent years, Thanksgiving is not much more than a speed-bump between Halloween and Christmas.
I personally love Thanksgiving. It is perhaps my favorite holiday since my childhood. In my youth, we had many a family gathering at this time of year. Most all of my Mid-West cousins and their families would gather together at grandma’s home to enjoy seeing folk we had not seen since last year at the same time. But for the most part of the nation, I fear it has become a mere mockery to a Holy God, Who deserves much more.
The secular world may need a special day to enforce a sense of gratitude, but the child of God, the Christian, has reasons to be and show thankfulness every day. “ . . . His compassions fail not, they are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness!”
David understood the blessings of the LORD as expressed in Psalm 103:1-5:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
What does it mean to ‘bless” God? It is to express solemn words that show appreciation, gratitude, respect, joint relationship, and goodwill for the One being blessed! When God is the object, “blessing” should always be rendered as “Praise!” The verse above gives us more than enough reason to be thankful!
