Thanksgiving, Part 1 of 2

“Please, would you explain what is Thanksgiving?” the woman comes up to me at the end of an English language learners class. She’s been in the U.S. five months.

Wow—a chance to teach a new immigrant the truth. Random facts spill from me:

The pilgrims desired to worship freely

• 1620 (I’m rather amazed I manage to pull that date from memory)
• Pilgrims
• Massachusetts (oops—that word puzzles her)
• Indians
• England
• harvest
• thankfulness
• freedom to worship God

I continue: “It’s a beautiful holiday—a day to thank God for His blessings. A few people even go to church that day, although not many. Many Americans don’t even know the real meaning.” I’m enjoying this pure moment.

I admit, I’m trying to innoculate her against the Commercialization Machine that revved up late October, grinding towards New Year’s Eve. For the few minutes we speak, at least, the Thanksgiving holiday stands alone in its glory.

May your Thanksgiving be a deliberate, focused celebration of gratitude with your loved ones.

Thanksgiving, Part 2 of 2

I truly love Thanksgiving, as do most of you.

This is the day we empty our Thanksgiving jar—a canister stuffed with scribbled scraps of paper collected throughout the past year. With those scraps we travel back, reviewing a landscape of God’s loving provision toward us: “Remember this?” “Oh, I’d forgotten I had to deal with that!” “Oh yeah, that was amazing.” Some years it takes us hours to go through our jar as we re-tell our stories.

A Thanksgiving jar can be a joyful addition to your holiday

We tend to jot down the good, material blessings—but sometimes we surprise ourselves with a note about how we have been delivered through, not out of, something.

 How will you focus on thankfulness this Thanksgiving?