Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, November 23. As is our tradition, we will have a worship service at 9 am on Thanksgiving Day. I have some “homework” for you. Take the words “Give Thanks” and develop either acrostic verses for them or try to name something that begins with each letter. An example of an acrostic verse would be, “God is good all the time. Immanuel has come to save us…” As for naming things that begin with the letters, “G reminds me of the goodness of God. I reminds me of the color indigo and the beauty of a rainbow…” You get the idea. It might be a fun activity to do with family and friends if you are together for Thanksgiving. It may even be a part of our Thanksgiving Day worship service here at Beautiful Savior.

Imagine being an atheist who has no one to give thanks to for the wonders of creation. For instance, you see the beauty of a wondrous sunset. You instinctively want to give thanks, but to whom? “Thanks that all the chemical reactions and evolutionary developmental process happened in just the right way so I can consider this to be beautiful,” doesn’t sound right since those things are impersonal and did not act in love. But what does sound right are these words of James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

What a great God who in His goodness and mercy gives us so many reasons each day to give Him all thanks and praise, honor and glory. And thanks too that our government even sets up a holiday for the express purpose of giving thanks. For us who follow Jesus, it isn’t a generic thanksgiving, but very specific for all our Lord’s blessings, especially the gift of eternal life through faith in our Lord Jesus.