Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  It is a day, when Americans traditionally eat too much and then lie down to spend an unquiet afternoon watching football.

Hopefully at some point, they feel grateful before they rush out to beat the crowds to buy the next electronic gadget that they really don't need.

When the Pilgrims celebrated a day of Thanksgiving in 1621, it was not because they had so much.  They had suffered much in their first year on American soil.  Many of their number had died and by modern standards, their houses were small and hardly insulated to face the harsh Massachusetts winter that lay before them.

Despite having little enough and no Black Friday sales to look forward to, these men and women sat down to a meal that focused not on themselves and their wants and desires and needs, but on the One who gave them what little they had.

What is it that makes us feel grateful?  Certainly it isn't having enough, because there have been plenty of times that I have had more than enough and I still was far from thankful.  It definitely isn't knowing folks that are worse off, because I know those people too and I still struggle with ungratefulness.

It is said that nine out of ten healed lepers don't think to say thank you. 

I sit here trying to figure out what makes the difference.  Why some people are grateful for little, while others are discontented with much.  I think there are many reasons, but I think gratitude is a conscious decision. 

You don't become a thankful person because you just happen into it, you become thankful because you look for ways that God's grace is revealed to you in your every day activities.  There are ways each day that the people you work with and spend time with, bless you.  In those moments, you must find ways to express your thanks.

More than that, thankful people find ways in which to pass on the grace that they have been given to others.

Thanksgiving is not about eating too much, or even making lists of things we are thankful for.  It is about consciously seeing the blessings in our lives and then, even more consciously, passing them on to others.