Thanksgiving Day is coming. It stirs up thoughts of pilgrims, turkey and pumpkin pie. But is it possible to find God in the holiday?

The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what. 

When they landed, they gave thanks to you know who. 

Because of them, we can worship each Sunday you know where.

A fourth grader’s report on the first Thanksgiving when the classroom teacher requested students make no reference to God (source unknown).

While believers remain disturbed about Christmas devoid of God, what about the holiday before the birth of Christ?

How Do We Find and Keep God in Thanksgiving?

Because the holiday celebrates more than gobbling up turkey.

Look at these definitions for gobble:

1) The sound a male turkey makes.

2) To eat, devour, grab or use something up in a speedy or greedy way.

And some definitions also cite to eat noisily. That’s another article on etiquette. Please try not to do this at the Thanksgiving table.

“To gobble” suggests:

• An action without reflection beforehand.
• No careful consideration of the devoured item.
• No gratefulness of where the means derived.
• A general lack of thankfulness for the provision.

To really give thanks, maybe like the first Thanksgiving, we are grateful for our “haves” without begrudging our “have-nots.”

[bctt tweet=”To really give thanks, we are grateful for our haves without begrudging our have-nots. #thankful @FridayKaren” username=”PatHolbrook”]

Thankful for the cornucopia of many blessings received and yet to be given from our Maker. As with the pilgrims, we carry a thankful heart for the place we’ve landed, whatever it looks like for each of us.

Abundant Provision and Freedom

We see ample cynicism in the media, government and society…perhaps in us. There’s a lot of ungrateful gobbling going on.

Still, we rise above the negativity when we remember this truth: We always have plenty to be thankful for.

Yet, sometimes we lose sight of giving thanks for freedoms. And no matter how we have to say it, like in the fourth grader’s report, we do say it, and we carry thankfulness in our heart. You see, thanksgiving—real thanksgiving in our heart—overflows in gratitude more than one day a year. A continual gratefulness that defines our lives and our character.

Often a sigh of relief is spoken with, “Thank God!” Maybe we received good news from a medical report or found out our loved one wasn’t hurt in an accident. Wonderful things to be thankful for.

Not just as a relief that something turned out good in the end. But thanking God, that in the end, we understand all good things come from Him.

Gobbling and Fullness

So before gobbling up a turkey leg or piece of pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, contemplate the fullness in our lives because of a generous God. Then consider how we show ourselves as a generous people. What does it look like in daily life? How is grateful and generous displayed in our communities and in our world?

[bctt tweet=”Grateful people are generous people. Generous people are grateful people. #grateful @FridayKaren” username=”PatHolbrook”]

Generosity helps others, models Jesus and shows the world true gratefulness and thankfulness. Do we serve the hungry, the homeless and those without basic needs—the “least of these?” (Matthew 25:35-40).

And this Thanksgiving season, thank God for fullness of stomach, life, love, family, freedoms and for every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Not only giving thanks on turkey day and in November…giving thanks all year long.

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations” Psalm 100:4-5 AMP.

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