Reminders of Gratitude

Yesterday was a great day.  Lots of food with family and friends, my youngest son's birthday, beautiful weather and a day without work to enjoy it all.  Thanksgiving is a great Holiday mainly because it is a day set aside to be thankful.  OK, that is quite obvious and implicit in the title of the Holiday itself.  But I wonder if sometimes we don't stop to really think about the implications of thanksgiving.  There are two aspects in particular that seem too often to be lost in the shuffle between cooking, cleaning, traveling to multiple family gatherings, football games, planning for shopping trips the morning after (or more accurately these days, immediately following supper): the issuance of thanks and gratitude.

As implicit in the Holiday title as that the day is for giving thanks is the notion that thanks is being given...to...whom?  In every day life we say thank you in many different ways in many different forms, but one common theme is that we don't give thanks to inanimate objects and we don't give thanks to empty nothings.  We tell people thank you for volitional acts that have been helpful or beneficial to us in some way.  So, it bears spendig some time thinking, then, about all the talk about being thankful for family, or the weather, or the day together with friends.  Who gave those things for our benefit?

This questions shows how the issue of gratitude begins to emerge.  If there is no personal God, concerned with our livelihood then what becomes of gratitude for any of the things in life we enjoy?  Our health, a beautiful day, great relationships, anything we don't make with our own hands are nothing to be grateful for if there is no God.  But wait, some may say, I really am glad that the weather was good today.  And that is all that's left when gratitude disappears - personal pleasure.  Happiness replaces gratitude and existentialism rules as people are not grateful for such things but rather define their very existence by such things.  A turn that is deserving not of Thanksgiving, but of despair.

It is a great time to be a believer in Christ Jesus.  As these trends continue and despair begins to reign supreme people will begin to look at those who are disciples of Christ and ask form where the joy, gratitude, thanksgiving and hope comes.  We can be ready to tell of a personal God who blesses without prior action and makes available not only pleasure for the moment but joy for eternity, all available for those who acknowlege and accept the gift that has been offered.

Happy Thanksgiving.