Sometimes life can be overwhelming. The world seems to grow darker by the day. Ongoing war in Ukraine and now Gaza brings a steady stream of human misery into our consciousness. An immigrant crisis at the southern border of the US threatens our national security and raises important ethical questions about our responsibilities as a nation to those who are at risk. Significant levels of inflation over the past three years put increased pressure on families just trying to make ends meet. The LGBTQ agenda continues to spread throughout Western culture infecting the minds of many, especially among young people who lack the ability to think clearly about the long-term consequences of their choices. The list could go on.
Yet we come today to another Thanksgiving holiday. For most Americans this will involve feasting and recreation amid gatherings of family and friends. Those may include some talk of gratitude and more than a few contrived answers to the question, “What are your thankful for?”
Let me suggest that before we can say what we are thankful for, we must consider to whom we ought to give thanks. In Philippians 1:3, the apostle Paul tells this beloved church, “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you.” He tells the Colossian believers, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you” (Col. 1:3). And to the church at Thessalonica he writes, “We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers” (1 Thess. 1:2).
We do not give thanks to the ether or to the cosmos. We do not thank the earth or the skies. We do not thank the universe for our blessings. And while we may rightly thank other human beings for kindnesses done, we ought to admit that they are not the ultimate source of our good. Following the example of the great missionary, we ought to give our thanks to God. And not just any god, but to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For what should we give thanks, living in these days? Let me offer one suggestion: meditate briefly on the following verses and allow the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with gratitude and your mouth with praise to the One whose mercy and grace abound toward sinners.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Ephesians 2:1-10
May God give you joy and hope this Thanksgiving!