Give Thanks

This week many families will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. From the harvest feast in 1621 shared by the English colonists and the Wampanoag people to Abraham Lincoln declaring Thanksgiving Day to be a national holiday to 2025, the celebration of Thanksgiving has gone through many variations. In many gatherings, the practice of giving thanks will be overshadowed by football and food. In other gatherings, some families will take the cue of the day to share their thankfulness to God and to one another.

As I reflect on my personal history of Thanksgiving Day, I find my thoughts filled with family members for whom I am truly thankful. Some of those have become memories while others fill the physical presence of my life. Most of all, I recognize that all the blessings that are part of my life are reasons for me to give thanks to God who is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

While writing this article, some of the lyrics of one song and a chapter from the Bible are present in my mind. In 1986, Don Moen wrote a simple, but meaningful song entitled "Give Thanks." A portion of that song replays in my thoughts tonight:

"Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One

Give thanks because He's given

Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"

Let the poor say, "I am rich"

Because of what the Lord has done for us"

Give thanks!

What God has done for us is more than enough reason to give Him praise and thanks. There is no greater gift or blessing than God giving Jesus Christ that by faith and trust in Him we might have eternal life. Every other gift pales in comparison to God's gift to us.

When I was in the ninth grade in a public school junior high school in 1961, each week a student or a teacher would share a brief devotional over the intercom to begin the school week. That year, the week of Thanksgiving (we only got out of school then on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving), I was asked to give the devotional thought. As a fourteen year old boy, my thoughts were not deep. So, rather than coming up with some original thought, I chose to read a chapter from the Bible. The multiple updated English translations of the Bible were not yet in publication so I read from the King James Version Psalm 100:

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Serve the LORD with gladness:

Come before His presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD He is God:

It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise:

Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.

For the LORD is good, His mercy is everlasting;

And His truth endureth to all generations."

How will we celebrate this Thanksgiving Day? The Scripture gives us direction:

"Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name."

Enjoy the football game; enjoy the food that is prepared; enjoy the gift of family and friends; but be sure to Give Thanks to the One who has blessed us with all of these things and even more in Jesus Christ.

GIVE THANKS!