Thanksgiving Every Day!

Do you have a favorite holiday? Three of our most celebrated holidays fall within five weeks of each other: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.

If I had to choose a favorite, it would be Thanksgiving. Both Christmas and Thanksgiving are steeped in Christian significance, but each has become enmeshed in tradition, pageantry, and folklore. This trifecta only serves to distract us from the original intent and true significance of each holiday.

We are all familiar with the commer­cialization and folklore of Christmas. What about Thanksgiving? We have incorporated much of it unwittingly into our lives, not realizing the grand departure that it represents. From a tradition and pageantry perspective, we have the Macy’s Day parade, football games, and a day of good eating.

Folklore would tell us that the native people were invited to and participated in a great feast with the Pilgrims at Plimouth Plantation (now Plimouth Patuxet). It was a day of intercultural connectedness and goodwill. Folklore would also tell us that these early set­tlers and indigenous residents were excited to spend a day together prais­ing God and that the tone of the day was one of mutual respect and admi­ration. We are also taught that this was the very first Thanksgiving, and it was the inaugural celebration that has carried on from that time up until this day. Much of this is far from the true historical facts of the early European settlement of Massachusetts.

The truth is that people have been celebrating a spirit of thanksgiving from long before Plimouth Plantation. On this soil, even before Europeans arrived, the native people celebrated a “Strawberry Thanksgiving” and a “Green Corn Thanksgiving.” The English also had a long tradition of giving thanks to God for the good things He brought into their lives. Only one written record remains of the legendary “first Thanksgiving.” Native people have oral tradition that brings additional flavor and understanding to that event. It wasn’t as harmonious and egalitarian as we might want to think.

As we approach the Thanksgiving season, we need to return to the true meaning and spirit of Christian Thanksgiving. I would encourage you to cultivate thankfulness, not just at the end of November, but to look for and express thankfulness to God for His abundant blessings every single day of your life.

Today we are thankful. We give thanks to God for His love, His mercy, and His faithfulness. We give thanks for family and friends, life and laugh­ter, and the little things that bring joy to our lives. We give thanks for our circumstances, even when they’re dif­ficult, for we know the hand of God guides us through it all. But what if we remembered thankfulness every day? What if we lived in a constant state of gratitude? Would our lives be different? Would our faith be strength­ened? Would the things of God per­meate every aspect of our lives?

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NET), the Apostle Paul writes, “In everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” What would life look like if we lived out that principle? Today we are reminded of all for which we must be thankful. May that gratitude move our hearts and cause us to make every day Thanksgiving.