Thanksgiving Day

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise!  Give thanks to Him: bless His name!  For the Lord is good; His steadfast love forever, and His faithfulness to all Psalm 100:4-5 (ESV)

Last Sunday’s editorial dealt with some thoughts on our being “thankful” for some things in our lives and, since Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, I’d like to continue on with more thoughts on “giving thanks” and being “grateful.”

Let me just start off by saying that the words “grateful” and “gratitude” per se aren’t found in the Bible but, the inference or implied meaning of the words sure are.  Here’s a couple of passages that I feel shows what I’m talking about by saying the implication of those words being seen in scripture.

In the 17th chapter of Luke (11-19) we read the account of Jesus healing the ten lepers and only one of them came back to thank Him for being healed.   Only one of them showed “gratitude” (glory) to God for his being blessed.  The second passage is from Rom. 1:21 where the writer, the Apostle Paul, is talking about those who are “ungodly” and “unrighteous.”  That “they knew God” because of all He had blessed the earth with, yet did not “glorify” Him “neither were thankful.”  By implication, they showed no “gratitude” towards God for His blessings.

Let me just cap this portion of our lesson off by stating a truth and that is: ingratitude and Christianity are diametrically opposed to each other.  Said another way, an ungrateful person will not be a Christian, nor will a Christian be ungrateful. 

Something else we find mentioned in the Bible is the word “season/s.”  A lot of times another word is added to it and we find the phrase “due season.”  It’s appropriate to every passage in which it’s found and it’s appropriate to our thoughts today.  Like the Bible says, things happen “in due season.”

When we’re considering the yearly seasons of earth we know that each season comes with its own attributes.  The winter season is the earth’s germination period.  Spring brings the rains and the planting season.  Summer has the warmth and growing and then comes fall with harvest time.

When would be a more appropriate time to celebrate and offer our “thanks” and be “grateful” than this season?  The culmination of the blessings of all the other seasons.  However, in all reality, there shouldn’t be just a “special” time of the year to be “thankful,” should there?  We should be, as Paul wrote in Eph. 5:20,  “thankful” for “everything at all times.”

Others besides the writers of the books of the Bible have expressed thoughts on “thanksgiving” that I feel appropriate to be included in our lesson here today.  As you noticed, I started this editorial with a passage from the book of Psalm.  An author by the name of Jeremy Taylor penned these words: “From David learn to give thanks for everything.  Every furrow in the book of Psalms is sown with the seeds of thanksgiving.”

One of our greatest forefathers, Benjamin Franklin, once said, “The heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.”   What that says to me is this; that there is no other way in which we can repay God for all that He has blessed us with than to “glorify” Him by having a “grateful” heart.

For those who like trivial information (although the principle isn’t trivial) the phrase “giving thanks” to God is used (by my count) 73 times in the Old Testament alone.  Although this next quotation, in the form of a prayer, is not from the Bible, it was written by a famous author and expresses a great truth as to our “giving thanks” to God.  It reads: “O Lord, who lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”  The author: William Shakespeare.

Yes, the fall is my favorite season of the year.  I like the warm days and cool nights.  I like the activities of fall such as the sports played at this time of the year.  And, being a hunter, I like being out in the woods during this season.  I love the fall colors with the leaves of the various trees changing into beautiful reds and yellows.  A lot of painters have tried to capture this picture on canvas, but none can ever paint it like God does.

And, of course, we get to celebrate one of my two favorite holidays - Thanksgiving.  Oh, the feasting (don’t say gluttony) that will go on at the Covey house.  The food will be great (always is) but the best feast to me is that my family (children and grandchildren) and other friends will be gathered there with me.  It just doesn’t get much better here on earth.

I’ve heard and read about a Thanksgiving dish that is becoming popular of late and it’s called a “turducken.”  A chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed inside a turkey.  Never tried one, but sounds good.  However, it’s the combination of two of those fowls that provides us with our closing thought today.  Ducks and turkeys.

A man, visiting a farm, watched the farmer putting his ducks and turkeys in their pens for their protection each evening and was amused by the farmer’s methods in doing this.  He said the farmer would herd the ducks into their pen and this was quite an endeavor.  The ducks would squawk and waddle all over the place and it wasn’t easy keeping them headed toward the pen.  He would eventually be successful and the ducks were in the pen.  The turkeys he simple led them into their pen and had no trouble in doing it.

To me, ducks are pretty birds and turkeys, well they’re just ugly.  However, they do look pretty good when they’re golden brown and lying on a platter.  Anyway, here’s why I’m using the two birds to close with.

As we live our lives, which bird are we like?  Are we like ducks and go running off after anything that catches our attention or looks good: IE: running after “every wind of doctrine?”  And not paying much attention to the one trying to protect us?

Or, are we like the turkeys - obedient to the directions of the farmer.  Are we faithfully following Him into a safe and peaceful home?  Safe from the main “predator” of souls?   I know which one I hope we all are.

Respectfully submitted,

Ron Covey