November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving

What do we have to be thankful for, and who are we thankful to, and why are we thankful? If we don't have answers to these questions, then today becomes just a day to eat turkey, put up with the relatives, and argue about whether or not trytophan has been scientifically proven to make one drowsy.

If we say that we are thankful for a great deal of things because we are glad that we have them, we at least have some semblance of purpose for today, but not, perhaps, a lasting one. It exists vaguely and amorphously, and would seem to depend on how much we have and whether or not sorrow has touched us in recent memory.

If, however, we are thankful to God, and we are thankful for what we have, even if it is not much and we are going through hard times, and we are thankful because it is the honest response of our hearts to the love shown to us by God and others, then we have something that, like the Pilgrims, can carry us through the leanest years, the worst economies, the most lonely circumstances. I hope and pray that you may have a thankful and happy Thanksgiving in the last sense.