Relaxing, food, family and friends: that is what Thanksgiving is made of…or is it?
In our hyperactive society, any day that is not a ‘work’ day is a day for which to be thankful. We do not necessarily consider the motivation for the holiday but focus rather on the opportunity to be free of the everyday.
On January 31, 1957, Canadian Parliament declared Thanksgiving to be:
“A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed – to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.”
Throughout Canadian history, the First Nations celebrated Thanksgiving as a thankfulness for the harvest bounty. In 1578, Martin Frobisher, on the last of his three journeys to the colonies in search of the Northwest Passage, celebrated Thanksgiving along with communion in tribute to God’s protecting grace after he, his ship and crew had been stranded in the ice through a northern Canadian winter.
Long before these Canadians or even our American neighbours celebrated thanksgiving, we can find true expressions of thanksgiving from God’s people in His word.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
This is just a small sampling of the reasons to be thankful to the One who truly is the source of thanksgiving. I especially like these next three verses and the onus they put on me to bless others for His name’s sake.
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
