Thanksgiving Day

 

What am I thankful for?

The question bounces through my mind and I immediately begin to think about my prayers.  I often mention to God things that I appreciate about my life.  The weather seems to factor prominently.  Apparently, I am extremely blessed by sunny days with pleasant temperatures – this, even though I don’t often think over much about them until it comes time to pray.

I am also thankful for the family that God has given me.  Once again, this is despite the fact that I often feel frustrated with my children’s behavior and wish they would just “grow up already.” 

I am thankful for “traveling mercies” and the ways in which I am divinely protected as I drive on the busy thoroughfares of this mighty nation in which I live.  Once again, I may mention this in prayer, but when I am driving, I’m seldom feeling thankful, just pressed for time and perhaps anxious about all of the crazy people guiding vehicles (poorly) around me.

(May God's kingdom usher in the time of self-driving vehicles.  Amen.)

The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonian Christians, “In everything give thanks.”  This seems like good advice, and I think most Christians somehow think this means that we are to have at least two or three items per prayer for which we thank God.  The easiest way to do this is to carry a little bag of things that we are always thankful for and open that at the beginning of our prayers and trot those out so that God feels better about Himself and doesn’t think we are just after getting our petitions answered.

It seems likely that we are called, not to say thank you (although certainly we should be willing to do that too), but to live thankful lives.  People who are living lives of gratitude do more than periodically list things they appreciate about their lives.  Lists are good, but it seems to me that they fall short of the Biblical imperative of joy.

Joy is one of the hardest fruits of the spirit to bear.  Joyful people feel the love that is behind the gift – even when gift falls short in some way.  Behind the “frowning providence,” they see God’s smiling face and realize that there is blessing to be found, even on a journey through suffering.

I wish I could say that I have mastered this, that unlike all of those frowning Christians around me, I am truly living a life of thanksgiving, but I struggle as well as anyone with seeing the clouds and missing the silver linings.  I find myself counting worries and not blessings and even my gratitude lists ring hollow with things I know I "should" be thankful for, but that I seldom think about these things until I break them out for Thanksgiving.

Maybe this is a time of year to commit again to living a joy filled life and to realize the amazing blessings each one

of us has been granted.  For grace comes pouring down from above to let us know our Heavenly Father’s love – even in the chaos of a department store the morning after Thanksgiving.