Thanksgiving is just a few days away from my writing this little piece. Turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie, can you tell I’m excited? When I was a younger man I thought the items on the table were the important part about Thanksgiving.
Like most people, I’ve come to realize that the table fare, tasty as it is, isn’t the highlight of the day. Much more important than our holiday favorites are the people we are blessed to have around us. My wife’s grandmother Dorothy used to prepare some of the most amazing Thanksgiving feasts imaginable. Dorothy grew up in Tennessee so her cooking had that popular southern flare. She loved to cook and serve her wonderful meals. Since her passing about a decade ago, it’s not so much her cooking that I miss, I miss her.
It’s easy to get so consumed by holiday preparation and the business of family gatherings that we fail to take time and enjoy one another.
I remember a few years ago I was craving a dish that my wife was preparing as part of our Thanksgiving meal. As we were taking the piping hot dishes from the oven the green bean casserole ended up out of the dish and in the floor. I was immediately disappointed as I had been looking forward to its wonderful taste. Worse than my disappointment about not having this delicious entrée was the look of frustration on my sweet wife’s face. We cleaned up the mess while the audience of loved ones looked on, some offering to help with our remediation effort. Within 5 minutes or so we were back on track and ready to serve our meal, less the coveted casserole. While our guests filled their plates I thought how blessed we were to have lost an entire dish but still had more than enough to eat. Most of all I felt blessed to have my wife who had just pulled off another holiday victory, snatching in from the jaws of disaster.
Yes, I love my wife even more than green bean casserole!
As we gather for Thanksgiving let’s be sure to express our love to our family and friends.
Most importantly let us remember to express our gratitude to God for His faithful blessings. In the gospel of Luke chapter 17, the scripture tells the story of ten lepers that were healed by Jesus. The disease of leprosy would cause a person to feel entirely hopeless as the flesh slowly rotted away. These ten souls were really living under a death sentence it was just a matter of time. Alienated from everyone else, they suffered together and waited to see who would be the first to die. When they encountered Jesus, they were all cleansed and healed! Sadly, only one of the ten that were healed ever returned and thanked the Lord for making them whole.
God has done so much good and yet so few ever take the time to acknowledge Him or express gratitude for His care for us. Unlike the nine that went their way never thanking the Lord, I want to be the one who has a heart of thanksgiving to God.
If we are paying attention, we can look all around us and see how good God is to us. When we see how fortunate we really are, we realize that every day is a day for being thankful for God’s goodness.
The scripture allows us to see heavenly worship that is always taking place before the throne of God.
…Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Revelation 7:12 AMP
We can worship Him in that same way here on earth if we are taking time to notice how blessed we are. I, like the one leper that came back to thank Jesus, am most grateful!
