I can say with some confidence that Thanksgiving is the oldest of holidays.

People have been giving thanks since they first became aware that there might be a power greater than themselves.

So, I have abandoned the argument of whether the first European Thanksgiving in America was in New England or Virginia (It was Virginia), because the native people of this land had been practicing Thanksgiving here for hundreds of years.

Forget all the proclamations and turn our focus to the Giver of all things.

Here are some scripture meditations that lead me to reflection:

The Thanksgiving-Grace Connection

…  that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. – II Corinthians  4:15

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:  – I Timothy 4:4

… when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will. -Leviticus 22:29

It is because of grace that we are grateful and it is with grace that we offer our gratitude freely. We give because we have received and we both give and receive gratefully in the same manner, with gracious hearts, with open hands, and with free wills.

Learning to live by grace is an exercise of growth. No longer can we cultivate an attitude of entitlement. We must replace it with an attitude of gratitude.

We must relinquish al the rights and privileges of a victim in order to assume the rights and privileges of a victor – one who has overcome, not through his own efforts, but through power and the gift of God.

Thanksgiving brings glory to God, the God of grace and glory.

Thanksgiving opens the door for us to receive blessings we have previously been denied.

Thanksgiving enables us to bring a sacrifice to God that will be worthy of His character, one that He will receive because it is given freely from our hearts.

Thanksgiving transforms us because grace transforms us.

Every good thing we have is a gift from a gracious God. Everything God makes is good and is offered freely to us. Every sacrifice we bring is something He has first given us. Whoever said that a person cannot out give God was right. We cannot give anything except what He has provided.

All we have is the attitude of our hearts – the attitude of gratitude to employ the cliché that one often employs. Let us so give and receive, as a people of grace. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

Thanksgiving and Anticipation

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. – Isaiah 51:3

The God who comforts us has come with song. He has come amidst the sounds of thanksgiving and praise. He has come to a people in anticipation, a people longing for redemption. The God of comfort is He who turns deserts into gardens of delight. It is He who brings salvation and justice. It is He who writes His law upon on hearts. It is He who causes the ransomed captive to return singing. He is the God to whom we give thanks and whose advent we celebrate.

He takes our waste places and makes them flourish. Where are the waste places in your life? What of your hopes have you written off as hopeless? In what dimensions of your existence have you relinquished your dreams? These are your waste places. Into these wastelands comes the Messiah of Israel, your comforter.

Where is your wilderness? Change its name to Eden. By faith embrace the new day that God is bringing to you. Embrace Him in the desert and watch the flowers of new life bloom around you.

Sing with joy. Sing with gladness, Make melody in your heart. This is the day of thanksgiving. This is the time of refreshment. This is the time when longings swell into a chorus of fulfillment. The Day of the Lord is near.

Every Advent season reminds us that He has indeed come. Every year we remember that as He once departed, He will come again in the clouds of glory.

This is our blessed hope. We welcome Him anew every Christmas season on the heels of Thanksgiving. We look back and we look forward. We are blessed with the big picture, but we also know that there is more to come.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

As They Did Eat

“And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.” – Mark 14:22

Eating is such a natural, normal, and recurring event in our lives. We partake of food daily. We do so alone and together with others. We do so out of duty, necessity, hunger, and for pleasure. Not eating would be rare.

Some of our happiest memories gather around shared meals with dear friends and family.

In the upper room, Jesus took the bread. As the host at a table of friends who, in many ways, were closer than family, He held it in His hands. The Incarnate God of the universe gets very personal with us at the table He spreads.

He broke it. A loaf cannot be eaten in one bite. Even more so, it cannot be shared that way. In order for God’s grace gift in Jesus Christ to be shared among us, it had to be broken. It is the brokenness of Jesus that pours out the grace of God.

He blessed it. It was no empty exercise nor powerless symbol. The bread that Jesus broke was offered and received with thanksgiving and the very blessing of God upon it. Jesus’ sacrifice was and is a blessed sacrifice. As we continue to come to the table, it is with gratitude.

He gave it to them. The Lord’s Supper is a reminder of a gift freely given. We cannot earn nor deserve what Jesus did for us. It is all of grace.

He told them it was His very own body. The sacrifice of Jesus was a sacrifice of His entire being. He held nothing back. So, in the receiving of grace, we cannot hold back. We must open ourselves completely to the One who gave Himself completely.

As they ate, He took, broke, blessed, gave, and instructed. Whenever we come to the table, all these elements are present. Let us come!

Thanks

“ By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” – Hebrews 13:15

Thanksgiving embodies the praise of God for all He is and all he does. It is true fruit, the fruit of our lips. Let us consider THANKS as a fruit that is pleasing to the Lord.

What is the difference in people who exhibit the fruit of thankfulness? Let us examine the word, “THANKS” and the choices that make thankful people fruitful people.

T – Thankful people THINK differently. Thoughts are filtered through an attitude of gratitude to God. They choose to think like people who have been blessed by God because they have been!

H – Thankful people are HAPPY because they choose to be. Happiness is always a choice of how we respond to life’s circumstances. If we are, by nature grateful, we will also be happier.

A – Thankful people ADJUST to ADVERSE circumstances and ADVANCE through them – again, because they choose to do so. They learn to make mid course corrections without complaint or helpless resignation to the creeping curse of fatalism.

N – Thankful people NEED less for themselves. They choose simple pleasures and rejoice in simple gifts. By needing less, they experience an abundance that is completely missed by the greedy grabbers of the earth and professional victims.

K – Thankful people embrace a KNOWLEDGE that is informed by the attitude that everything is a gift from a gracious and giving God who deserves our praise.

S – Thankful people SEEK what is good because they seek God.

No wonder God considers thankfulness an offering of praise from our lips. He invites us to bring it continually, not only because of what we offer Him, but because of what He accomplishes in us as we give thanks.

Meeting God in the Desert

 “For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” – Isaiah 51:2

 I once had a much distorted view of the desert as a place where there was no life, beauty, or variation of scenery. That was because I had never been there.

It was in the desert that the children of Israel received the Law, encountered God, and realized who they were.

It was in the desert that so many of the prophets received clarity for their message.

It was in the desert that John the Baptist’s voice cried out preparing the way of the Lord.

It was to the desert that Jesus so often retreated to meet with His Father and in the desert where He was tempted and found without sin.

God has so often comforted us in the waste places of our lives with His presence. He has made our deserts like gardens of His own planting. He has filled them with giddy joy, gratitude, and music.

Like my early prejudice against deserts, our attitudes have often led us to avoid the dry and barren places of our human experience. We desperately fill our lives with noise, frills, and thrills to escape the wilderness.

Yet, it is the wilderness where we must sometimes go if we are to meet God in a way that is fresh and new.

God wants to bring us to the desert so that He might plant a garden in the deserts of our hearts. How long will we resist?

Thank You!