This is it. The week of family gathering to eat, laugh, and shop. It is the week Americans call Thanksgiving. However, the three things I mentioned have nothing to do with being thankful, but can they? Let’s look at a few ways we can make this week more about being thankful than indulging in the things we love.
Let’s start with eating. Many will gather with friends and family to share a meal featuring dishes prepared only once a year. We all have our favorites, and our family is no different. We like our turkey smoked, served with a menu that is a carbohydrate overload. But do most people stop and think about where the resources came from to prepare such a meal? How about the thoughts of the millions around the globe who are starving with no hope of any food, much less a table full? Recently, a missionary from Cuba visited our church. It was an enlightening service that challenged my heart. In a country where the average person is very poor, it gave new meaning to the phrase “Our daily bread.”
In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is teaching us how to pray. In verse 6, the request is “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread was a necessary sustenance for this time period, but for us, we don’t think much about it because it is probably the least expensive carbohydrate on the table. This petition is teaching us that our dependence is on God for even the simplest things in life. This dependence should be a daily thing. The phrase “give us” implies it should be done in the home with the family. The mere provision of bread should be recognized as a gift from God. We take for granted that we will have plenty to eat when we start each day. Our problem is not whether we will have food, but to make sure we don’t overeat. I believe in America, our blessings have become a detriment to our faith. If we were, like many other countries, where people must daily seek to have something, anything, to eat, we would seek God more and be grateful for everything.
Next, let’s look at laughter that we will experience this week. In our home, we will sit and talk and reminisce about days gone by. All the funny things that have happened while our boys were growing up, or the little things the grandkids did on the pathway to adulthood. These sweet memories are good. We will also cry a little as we talk about the things God has brought into our lives this past year that have caused us to seek Him in a greater way. But what about the family that does not know God? They find themselves laughing about things that are against God. They look back with the determination not to remember their days of sorrow and pain. Should we not take time to seek those people out and show them a better way, a way filled with the joy of the Lord, no matter what the circumstances? How will they know unless we are concerned enough to reach out in love? We are to tell them, show them, and love them like Jesus does. This is what John 13:34-35 and John 15:13 are teaching us. Jesus loved us enough to demonstrate His love by giving His life.
John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
Now, for the last element of the Thanksgiving traditions in America, shopping. Millions of dollars will be spent during the week of Thanksgiving. The majority will be for presents for someone else. Usually, it will be for family members. We enjoy seeing those we love open a gift from us that excites them. Most of the time, it isn’t something they need, but something they want. We spend hours looking for the best price for this gift without ever thinking about those who have needs instead of wants. What would the Christian world look like if every Christian sought out someone with needs and helped meet them? These kinds of generous acts could open the door to give them the best and most needed gift of all—the gift of salvation. We are commanded by God to do many things as a Christian, but the most important and neglected is telling them and showing them who Jesus is and how He can be their Savior.
This is it! The culmination of these three things, eating, laughing, and shopping, can be the avenue to leading others to Christ. In Luke 19:10, Jesus states His core mission. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Can you imagine a Thanksgiving where the talk was more about those who have come to know Jesus this past year than what indulgences we are going to experience? We have the power and resources, through Jesus, to make thanksgiving more about Him and less about us. As the Niki ad says, “Just do it.”
