Tomorrow is another wonderful Thanksgiving day. For most Americans it is an opportunity to be reunited with family and friends who we don’t get to see as often as we would like. We will overeat, fall asleep on the couch and then eat some more. Football will be on the big screens of some homes. Early Christmas movies will light the screens of others. We will hug and smile and feel the warmth of loved ones while the crisp air outside bites against the window.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like the atmosphere of Thanksgiving and all that it promises. I just wonder, as we gather for our meal together and look into the eyes of people who mean so much, what will we be most thankful for? To whom will we direct those thoughts of gratefulness?
In the difficult days that Americans live in, as jobs are uncertain and just getting food on the table is about all that many can manage. How far have we drifted from our once bright and hopeful ancestors? When the ships landed on the new soil of America and the weary travelers unloaded their belongings with the hope that this new place in their life would afford them the freedoms they had been denied across the great oceans that carried them. Half of all those who made the journey to this new land called America did not survive the first winter here. Conditions were so difficult that many probably wondered why they had given what they had in a distant land, to arrive here in the harshness of this new place.
Gathered around the meager sustenance they could manage, much of which was provided by their new native American friends, the mixed multitude of so many different kinds of souls bowed their heads and gave thanks on that first Thanksgiving day. They thanked God. They believed that the One who had created all things had also provided all that they possessed. There was no doubt that there was a God, there was no uncertainty of His hand of providence that had guided them, even in the uncertainty of their future. They were certain of Him and were thankful to Him for whatever they had and they sat down to enjoy it all on that first Thanksgiving day.
When I hear people wish each other “Happy Thanksgiving”, I wonder just who it is they are lifting their thanks to? Have they pondered the depth of their own spirit and realized that they were created by someone who obviously loves them very much? Have they taken each day with the perils, poisons and passions and laid their head on their pillow at night to feel the warmth of His presence with them through every step?
When I look into the beautiful face of my sweet wife and my now grown sons, I see light and life springing forth from every blessing that I could have ever imagined or desired. I understand that whatever I have, the need of those things was known to my God before He ever fashioned me, or provided for me on that particular day. I have no other place to rest my Thanksgiving, but upon the lap of a Father who once gave me His only Son. A Father who looked down past the ages of time, into the window of eternity and gazed at my face and whispered: “Do you know how much I Love You?”
I am the beneficiary of His extravagant love and mercy. I have known the sensation of feeling by sins fly away and all guilt pass from me. I bask in pure joy because of Him and feel peace in my soul because He paid such a high price for my happiness.
It is to you my great and loving Father in heaven that I direct all my thankfulness and deep gratitude. Thank you for giving your precious Son Jesus and for displaying to me how deep, how wide, how unlimited your Love is for all of us.
It is to You that I am thankful, and it is for all that I have gained and lost and given away to others so that they could know your love, that I offer up my most sincere and loving thanks. All those who feel the same sense of deep gratitude add their names Father to this list and we present these to you in this Thanksgiving day, November 25, 2010.
We are watching for you Jesus, come soon…
Rob Robinson
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