The true spirit of Thanksgiving!
Most of us know the story of how the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in the stark cold of December of 1620. They had no shelter and very little to eat. The winter that year took all but five of their women companions as about half of the slightly over one hundred of them died from the winters effects. In 1621, the friendly Indians helped them get established and taught them how to farm and to provide for their needs. At the close of the harvest season that year, they and the Indians gathered for a multi day celebration that featured more than enough to eat, thus beginning the celebration that continues down to this very day and time.
It was during the American civil war in 1863, the president Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving, thus formalizing the day as it continues to be celebrated today. One line from that proclamation attracts particular attention even today. It states:
“They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
We have a friend who recently stated to us that he and his wife had been praying for mercy and intercession for a person who was gravely ill and in need for some form of aid that this world alone could not provide. His wife suddenly stated to him that they should stop asking for something and instead simply praise God instead. As they began to do that my friend stated that he could begin to feel that things were going to be alright for the one that they had been praying for. Sure enough, they were.
We have known many people in this world who constantly pray for things for themselves. On another board we read in the last few days where a man prayed for his own financial well being and the furtherance of his good fortune. While he gave credit for his success solely to God, he still prayed for it none the less. When we think about people like that we remember that Jesus Christ frequently hung out with people who had no good fortune in their lives until he came to them and so often healed them of their afflictions. We remember the ten lepers who the Christ healed all at the same time but only one, a lowly Samaritan man, returned to thank and praise him for what he had done for him. Jesus asked where the other nine were at and then pronounced that this man would surely find salvation in heaven for what he had done with his praise. Jesus did not say that the other nine would find salvation in heaven even though they had been cured of their ailment by the miracle that he had performed for them.
Is it too much to have a deity that only asks for praise and thanks for all that he has done in so many lives here upon this so often cruel earth?
It costs nothing to praise and thank and, as your mother probably instructed you when you were young and someone had done something nice for you: “What do you say?”
We have spend our life, these sixty four years, living so much of it not even praying for anything, much less giving thanks. It was not until God interceded on our behalf a few years ago when we were in a hopeless situation that even the doctors had said would end in death, that we woke up to the realization that he had been watching over and protecting us even though we had not asked for it or ever bothered to thank him for what he had done. It has been said quite often that God knows what is best for us and even if we only think it without praying, he will so often, if it be his will, cause it to come to fruition for us whether we realize it or not. So many people blame and are unforgiving to God because of the circumstances that they find themselves in, never realizing that so often it is either their fault or simply the circumstance that surrounds being free beings with free will given to us collectively so long ago.
Miracles are performed every day and none of them are ever small in nature if God’s hand it involved in them! And all he ever asks in that we believe.
There are so many humble people on this earth, and, although so many of them have next to nothing, or even nothing at all, they still give thanks to a gracious God for the air that they have to breathe, the beauty of a sunny day, or just even being alive on the planet. And in the heart that God searches for the goodness in all of us, they know that a better day awaits them at the end of a life that is so often such a struggle just to get though each and every day.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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