Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
Let me tell you why.
First, it’s uncomplicated and straightforward. You probably have noticed that Thanksgiving is the least decorated of our major holidays. No Santas, no angels, bells, bright lights, or trees.
No bunnies, no eggs, baskets, or bonnets. No witches, no pumpkins, bats, ghosts, or gremlins.There’s less clutter, and fewer distractions. It may be the least expensive holiday to observe. No new clothes or costumes, impressive parties, or presents. It’s simple. You, God, family (and, well, yes. . . that turkey).
So Thanksgiving seems to leave more room for people. Of course we get together around food, but don’t all cultures in all times do that? But there often is a slower pace over that long, long weekend, that on Wednesday evening seems like it might last a month.
It’s always a little sad for me, in a way, when Thanksgiving is past because I know that if I blink twice, Christmas will be over and the New Year upon us. Thanksgiving is a sort of “foyer of holidays.” A time to rest, relax, and reflect with those you love before the Christmas madness begins.
The best part of Thanksgiving is the most obvious. It calls us, without fanfare or diversion, to the very basics of our spiritual life, to a newer and fresher appreciation of God’s grace. If we use the holiday well, we come away not fatter, but fulfilled, not gorged, but grateful.
It is not that we serve God merely because we are grateful, and certainly not because we seek to repay Him for His bountiful gifts. Rather, it is that we worship Him because of who He is in Himself: holy, good, just, and loving. It is that we respond to Him with the joy that Jesus did because we have time to recount and reflect upon specific acts of His grace to us. It is that His grace transforms us to be like Him, and lay down our lives for one another.
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
2 Corinthians 9:15