Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Naturally with the holiday approaching this week our thoughts turn towards Thanksgiving Day. The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving with three days of feasting after their first bountiful harvest; which consequently followed their first winter in the New World when approximately half of them died. No wonder they celebrated for three days.

At it’s core, thanksgiving is an acknowledgment rendered in response to some good thing or act. Somebody holds a door open for us and we say, “Thank you.” We receive a gift at someone else’s expense and we tell them we appreciate their generosity. Thanksgiving is an acknowledgment of the giver’s loving sacrifice and, if done with sincerity, also a reflection of the grateful heart of the one receiving the gift.

God has given us the greatest gift of all, in sacrificing himself on the cross (1Jn 3:16) to redeem us from sin and death (Rom 6:23). What is the greatest acknowledgment, thanksgiving, that we could offer in response? Psalms 116:12-14 says, “What shall I render unto the LORD [for] all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.” The greatest giving of thanks you can offer to the Lord is yourself. That is what he desires most. Take the cup of salvation (Acts 2:38) and call upon his name. In so doing, you acknowledge with a grateful heart the immense gift he has give you in love. That is truly thanksgiving.

Psalms 136:1 “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

God Bless and Have a Great Week!

« »