Thought for Today
Leviticus 7:13 With your thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being you shall bring your offering with cakes of leavened bread.
Psalm 50:23 Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God."
2 Corinthians 4:15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
Philippians 4:6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
It’s finally here! Today is Thanksgiving Day. The parades have started. Regrettably, in much of the northeast, it is raining. At least the precipitation mostly remains liquid, except in the higher elevations. Our turkey is stuffed, basted and in the oven, hopefully timed for our anticipated 2:00pm feast.
“Turkey contains a specific amino acid called tryptophan, which helps your body make serotonin, and serotonin is a precursor for melatonin, which is commonly known as our sleep hormone,. . . Most people feel tired after a traditional Thanksgiving meal for other reasons besides the tryptophan in turkey,” (Alyssa Pacheco on www.aol.com/real-reason-why-turkey-makes) Irrespective of the scientific or imaginary reasons, many of us are anticipating an afternoon of festive dining followed by “watching” sporting events on television (some of us through closed eyes).
I sometimes joke that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it is devoted to overeating and football. For many Americans, that is the sad truth. For others, it has become the day before Black Friday. Those involved in retail understand that the “Black” refers to the fact that tomorrow kicks off a spending splurge which will enable many retailers to change the ink color in their accounting ledgers from red (loss) to black (profit). Of course, for those of us who carefully track our income/expense balance, the opposite change can easily occur between tomorrow and New Year’s Eve.
For us as Christians, Thanksgiving Day should be much more than tryptophan and inserting our credit cards into some store’s card reader. Thanksgiving Day should be a day devoted to gratitude. This day more than any other, we should focus on all that our Creator God has done for us, all God has provided to us and for us. Our ancestors-in-the-faith practiced a detailed, rigorous sacrificial system including a “With your thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being you shall bring your offering with cakes of leavened bread.” Today, most Christians in the U.S.A. are more likely to serve dinner rolls and probably are not thinking of them as a sacrifice (except to their calorie count).
I hope and pray for us all that at some point today, we might remember those words above from the psalmist, “Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God." I hope we remember to offer a blessing before our Thanksgiving repast and that our blessing is one of gratitude to our Creator God.
Greta and I read the devotional guide These Days. So too do some of you who read my Thoughts. The author of today’s devotional wrote, “The practice of gratitude helps us learn to surrender our worry to God.” That is certainly as true today in these turbulent times as it was for our earliest ancestors.
Some time today, take a few minutes to read and reflect on the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. That author today focused on verse 27, “And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” I would also suggest reading verses 34 and 35 , “34 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 35 So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.”
The prayer offered in today’s devotional in These Days might prove a valuable addition to the prayer libraries of us all, “Gracious Lord, help me learn how to not worry and to live in a spirit of gratitude. Amen.”
Stay safe, enjoy God’ bounty, trust God,
Pastor Ray