Thanksgiving began last Sunday with our wonderful church feast. I'm pretty sure I haven't stopped eating since. I hope you all enjoyed not only good food, but also a time of recalling the ways in which The Lord has brought blessings into your life and your world.
But, for the Followers of Christ, Thanksgiving is not just a “once-a-year” thing. Thanksgiving is not just a special Holiday. Thanksgiving should be how we live every day.
Oh - you think that maybe once a year is plenty of time to devote to giving thanks because you don’t have the same “stuff”, or as much “stuff” as other folks have? Here’s something you have – something you desperately need - that has come from God Himself.
Air.
Secular scientists might say that Earth’s atmosphere is the perfectly natural result of billions of years and millions of random chances. Right. Tell that to the thousands [millions? billions?] of other planets in the Universe that have no life-sustaining atmosphere!
Need more? I’m sure you can think of plenty now, but how about grace? How about Jesus Himself? The Apostle Paul, as he is dictating a message teaching Christians about giving, becomes so caught up in the amazingness of Christ and His grace that he bursts into praise: “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” And his stenographer wrote down this outburst of praise and thanksgiving, which we now know as 2 Corinthians 9:15. It has been preserved for 2000 years as a teaching moment for any of us who might wonder every now and then about whether we have anything to be thankful for.
Being grateful is so important. Expressing gratitude is more important. Psalm 100:4 says "Enter His gates with thanksgiving." One could, perhaps, interpret this verse to mean that people who refuse to be grateful and to express thanksgiving will NOT enter the gates of The Lord. Let's not put this theory to the test. Let us be a people known for our expressions of thanksgiving and praise!
~Shepherd Ambrose Ramsey
