Don’t Miss Thanksgiving!
“Give thanks to the Lord.”
Psalm 107:1 (NIV)
One of my favorite childhood holiday traditions was attending the annual downtown Birmingham Christmas parade. That parade marked the beginning of the retail Christmas holiday season and was always held on the Friday night after Thanksgiving. It was always a parade of firsts: the first downtown Christmas lights and decorations, the first Christmas retailer window displays for Loveman’s and Pizitz department stores; my first Christmas sighting of Santa Clause at the end of the parade; the first Christmas carols being played by local high school marching bands. That Christmas parade clearly separated my childhood holiday season into “Before Christmas” and “After Thanksgiving.”
Unfortunately, that parade and the clear dividing line between Thanksgiving and Christmas no longer exists for most of us. The danger is that we celebrate Halloween, completely miss Thanksgiving, and rush right to Christmas.
But it isn’t just the retailers that can miss Thanksgiving. Last weekend James Bruce came home from Rainbow Omega for a weekend home visit. Monday morning as we were getting ready to take him back to RO, I heard him singing:
“Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Jesus
Happy Birthday to you!”
“Whoa Brucie, we’re not even to Thanksgiving yet!” I laughed as I realized that for James Bruce, after Halloween comes Christmas and Christmas presents!
I’ve been reading through the Psalms this week and challenged by the “give thanks” sacred echo found repeatedly throughout the entire book. Thanksgiving isn’t just a retail holiday season. For the Christian, thanksgiving is supposed to be an everyday attitude of heart and a way of life. Here are just a few thoughts to consider throughout this Thanksgiving season before we race to. Christmas:
"Give thanks" is a biblical command, not an option or a good idea.
If the command is to "give thanks," then the resulting important questions are "to whom?" and "for what?" If there are gifts, there has to be a Giver. We give thanks to the Lord for who He is and what He has done.
"Give thanks" is a verb while thanksgiving is a noun. A verb requires action and we aren't to just think about giving thanks. Like the Nike folks, we are to "just do it!"
Giving thanks is not generic; it's intentional and specific. Psalm 107, the text for today's verse, was probably the text for Governor William Bradford's first Thanksgiving celebration with the Pilgrims. Those 43 verses contain over forty blessings or benefits that are very specific to God's character (who He is) and deeds (what He has done). There is no "sloppy agape" in these verses. Instead, we get a detailed account of God's miraculous deliverance from the desert, darkness, doom, distress, and death.
With that in mind here are just a few of the top items on my 2021 Thanksgiving List
Rainbow Omega and the gift of place for James Bruce
Julia’s 10th birthday; Thank you for 10 years of pure joy!
The women in my weekly Thursday morning Bible study who studied and finished well this fall. Yesterday they filled two entire white boards with the Life Takeaways from our nine- week study of John’s Gospel.
So what about you? What is on your 2021 Thanksgiving list? Before we make our shopping, grocery, errand, and "to do" lists for the upcoming Christmas holidays, why not make our thanksgiving list remembering who God is and what He has done in our own lives?
"When we tell others how God has delivered us, we give thanks and honor to Him. We also plant a flag in the public record: God did something here...and later, when we are tempted to forget, we can look back at that small flag, fluttering in the breeze of memory, and remember that His deliverance was real."
Ellen Vaughn, Radical Gratitude
Give thanks!