Good Gracious
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Good Gracious
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I’m getting out my soapbox to once again trumpet my heartfelt desire for a longer time of Thanksgiving. One weekend or one day is simply not enough. A month or two would be good. In fact, Labour Day until American Thanksgiving would be just about right. That would give us one quarter of the year to reflect on the blessings and the good gifts that we have and receive season by season. I know there is Halloween and Remembrance Day and now Truth and Reconciliation Day, but perhaps these three would fall under the category of Thanksgiving, perhaps not.
Many of us tend to find the things we don’t like in this life and focus on them. That’s easy to do in politics. That’s often easy in the church. When we are faced with crises, sometimes God allows us to remember that He has taken us through a lot of history to get us where we are. In the past, many of us thought the world was going to end with a nuclear bomb(s) strategically placed or fired off with missiles. We tend to think now more of plagues and global warming and other types of wars.
No matter where your head takes you in these latter days, we know God is with us. We know whatever takes the earth down in the end is not the end of the matter. God has a plan beyond this. So God continues to remind us of His presence, His faithfulness in history, and His warning to bring all our concerns to Him in these days. Deuteronomy 8 is often read at Thanksgiving to remind us that we are not to allow our prosperity, our abundance of food and clothing, housing, and health to get us into a space where we forget God or make up our own gods. So when we are at our Thanksgiving tables, remember that passage of Scripture:
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (NIV Deuteronomy 8:10-14)
Don’t forget God this Thanksgiving season. Remember all the good gifts He has given you and is giving you. God bless you.
Pastor Jonathan
