Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Food, family, friends. No pressure to give gifts. No judgement for when you go up for thirds-ies (you do know about thirds-ies, right?!) For the frugal dad in me it’s super cheap considering all the food you can get. Mid-day food coma naps.
And, the pumpkin pie...
Some folks really enjoy the Thanksgiving Day sports ball game. I may lose some of you at this point but I don’t really care much for sports.
Sorry, not sorry.
AND Thanksgiving comes twice a year!
Well, that is, if you’re married to a Canadian. Our friends in the Great White North celebrate the very same holiday but on a different date. Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October (same as American Columbus Day) So in my house we get double portions!
I wanted to brush up on the history of Thanksgiving because I probably haven’t heard the story since elementary school! Thanks to Wikipedia I can share the highlights!
“The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and—as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow—it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.”
Another awesome thing I didn’t remember was when Thanksgiving was made a formal federal holiday. President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official federal holiday during the American Civil War in 1863. Lincoln declared that the holiday would be a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
What if we returned to the stated purpose of Thanksgiving as Christians.
I’m not suggesting that the church DOESN’T give thanks for our provisions. What if we were more earnest in our gratitude on the days before and after Thanksgiving?
What if we had an enduring understanding of all that we really have to be thankful for beyond the blessings of food, a home, or physical and monetary security. Those are all amazing blessings and totally worthy of gratitude! But what if we were aware of more than the obvious daily blessings.
Thanksgiving is a reflection of our level of intimacy with The Father.
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” -Colossians 3:16-17
When we recognize how great God is and how deeply He loves us we are overcome with gratitude. Just look at that scripture from Colossians! When the Message of Christ -the Gospel- dwells among us -when it becomes ingrained in our identity- we share it (teach), we live our lives in example (admonish one another), and sing in gratitude to God because of it! Every move we make is because the Truth has become who we are.
But how do you get intimacy out of that?
We get invited into a depth of intimacy with the Father when we come to realize what He has given just to have that intimacy with you. Do you realize how valuable you are to the Father? When you understand your value -the price that God was willing to pay to get you back from sin- I promise you will be absolutely overcome with thankfulness.
The problem in the church is that either we’ve become callus to the price that was paid by Jesus on the cross or we never really understood our own value. The cross wasn’t some Black Friday BOGO deal. Even if you were the ONLY sinner in all of history, God would have bankrupt all the riches of Heaven to buy your life back!
Your thanksgiving is in the understanding of the price that was paid for your life.
When you receive a well thought out, beautiful gift from someone who knows you well and loves you, there is a special thing about that, right? When my wife gives me a gift, there is a lot more than just the value of the gift. There is the heart behind it. As Christians we have received the gift of a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters! (Romans 8:15)
Many have received the gift but never opened it. They’ve never taken possession of that gift and continue to live as orphans and slaves. The presence of intimacy receives the undeserved gift with thankfulness and then puts it on. It becomes part of who we are. And by that gift of a spirit of adoption, we cry ‘Abba, Father!’
The Father has gifted us the same level of relationship and intimacy that He shares with His Son Jesus. Do you believe that? Because, even writing that down blows my mind! I have been welcomed into the same depth of relationship that God has with Jesus. Abba, Father!
Thank you Jesus!
As you spend time with your family this Thanksgiving, remember to give thanks to God. Ask for a new revelation of His presence, His love, and His intimacy with you. Take it, receive it, and become it!
As you eat your fill of food today, remember these words:
“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” -Psalm 107:8-9
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