Thanksgiving is just around the corner

This year it will be on Nov 24. Although an American holiday, my family has been celebrating thanksgiving for over 20 years now. Dinner always includes the traditional baked turkey with all the trimmings (liver gravy, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce), cold fruit salad, etc. This is a dinner we all look forward to with great anticipation. The family has grown since we first observed this and now includes grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. This is also a sort of a reunion since we don't get together regularly anymore.

What makes Thanksgiving really meaningful is that we don't gather to just eat and enjoy warm fellowship over a sumptuous and generous spread. We congregate around the dinner table and one by one offer up a prayer of thanks to the Lord who has been so good to us over the past year. Everyone, including the grandchildren old enough to speak, participates. Interestingly enough, this time of prayer is filled with laughter, joy, tears, and most of all, a deep and sincere gratitude to a God who, in the midst of trials and testing, suffering and joy, ups and downs, has always been there. He is faithful indeed.

There is an old chorus whose lyrics have come to mean so much to me over the years.

Think about His love
Think about his goodness
Think about His grace that's brought us through
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our Father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love.

How could I forget His mercy?
How could I forget His love?
He satisfies
He satisfies
He satisfies my desires
Great is the measure of our Father's love,

Perhaps you, too, could have a time of thanksgiving. The turkey and other foods are not important. It's just the bonus, so to speak. The important thing is coming together with family (or close friends if you're not with your family) and offer up a prayer of thanks to the One who gave His life so unselfishly for YOU.

Shalom!