Thanksgiving to whom?
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009The question always arises on the last Thursday of November, “What are you thankful for?” Dangling preposition aside, I think it is the wrong question to begin the conversation. We ought to spend our days thinking of the One to whom we are thankful.
A blogger once posted Abraham Lincoln’s address instituting the observance of Thanksgiving. It said in part:
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
Lincoln had it right when he said “ day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father “. We must remember to be thankful to our wonderful, merciful God who, in His great love, sent His Son to die on the cross so that through the gift of faith we, the elect, might have life. Romans 1:21 ”For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks;” The idea, of course, being that of giving thanks to God for who He is. As blood-bought sinners we must give thanks to God for who He is and, especially, for who He is to us; that is, our Abba Father. Once we are thankful to God, we can then be thankful for His wonderful blessings. So let me rephrase the question (dangling preposition included), who are you thankful to?
