This is the week that we as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. This unique holiday has had an interesting past. The first Thanksgiving is recognized to have happened in 1621 when the Native Americans shared the autumn harvest with the pilgrims. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln made it an official American holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.
Now most of us look at Thanksgiving as a time to give up any diet we might be in the middle of to eat obscene amounts of food, a time to be with family and friends, or just a break from classes before finals. Now notice from the history of Thanksgiving that it was birthed out of desperate times in America. From the Pilgrims struggling to survive in a new and harsh environment and the middle of the Civil War were both dark times for the nation and milestones for the holiday. Why is that. Shouldn't we be celebrating and giving thanks when times are good, and be sad and brooding when times are tough?
I believe that Thanksgiving was born out of dark times in our past because it gives hope, not because we need an excuse to eat turkey and cranberry sauce. Concentrating on the good in your life makes the bad and the difficult in your life seem so small.
Now I love Turkey-day, but from the standpoint of being a child of God, everyday should be Thanksgiving! Hebrews 12:28 says,
"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful..."
As children of God, we have everything to be thankful for every day, not just on the fourth Thursday in November. We have the God of the impossible living in our hearts, and by our side at all times. Why wouldn't you be thankful?
I have personally been through some rough patches in my life, and I have heard stories of people who have had much worse, but when I think about the goodness of God all those bad feelings of fear and despair disappear. Being thankful takes our mind off of the temporary situations and puts it on an eternal God. Hebrews 12:2 says
, "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."
When trouble comes and the enemy of our souls comes to feed you lies, fix your eyes on Jesus and give thanks for all he has done.
We can be thankful to God because of who he is and the things he gives us as children. Here are some verses with examples of things to be thankful for.
Freedom- Romans 8:1-4, Galatians 5:1
Love- John 3:16, 1 John 4:10
Healing- Isaiah 53:5
Plus so much more!
I challenge you this Thanksgiving to put your focus on the things in your life that you can be thankful for, not food (although I am thankful for the food), and to continue the attitude of thanksgiving every day of the year, in both the good and the bad times. Storms of life may come, but we have someone on our side who is bigger than our storms. Happy Thanksgiving!
