Happy
Thanksgiving! Today is a holiday with the
traditional turkey and all the fixings. Families getting together, scrimmage football games in
the yard, parades on tv, everyone talking and laughing and telling old stories
and taking long naps. Yes, that’s the ‘ideal’
Thanksgiving day. There are far too many people
that do without. Too many people alone and hungry. For these, that’s the reality of
Thanksgiving Day. (What Christians are called to
do is a post in itself.)
So, what
is Happy Thanksgiving all about?
Take ‘Happy’
first. Happy: cheerful, glad,
satisfied, delighted, thrilled, content, tickled, pleased... Add: joyful and
blessed. (True joy is a post in itself.) I’ll focus on blessed. Take a look at the Beatitudes in *Matthew 5:1-12. Jesus tells us what it means to
be blessed. He gives us a list, and some are
those who grieve, those who are humble, those who are hungry, those who are
compassionate, those who are peacemakers, those who are wronged... I don’t have to be ecstatic, and
I don’t have to be miserable, to be blessed.
Now for ‘Thanksgiving’. Thanksgiving: gratitude, praise,
gratefulness, appreciation, admiration... Add: worship and praise. In the
Psalms, worship and thanksgiving and praise in both song prayer is repeated
many times over. One well known verse is Psalms
100:4 (NLT) 'Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.' Another favorite is 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NLT) 'Be
thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to
Christ Jesus.'
As for
me, Thanksgiving is being blessed by God and worshiping Him with thanksgiving
and with praise. Every single day of the year.
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