NOT SO FAST!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't like how our culture seems to be "skipping" Thanksgiving again. Obviously we won't actually be skipping Thanksgiving, but for the past 3 weeks as I walk into stores I see lots of Christmas stuff everywhere. Christmas music playing on the radio, Christmas this and Christmas that.

Now, don't get me wrong...I really enjoy Christmas. I enjoy so many things about Christmas, but I don't like that Thanksgiving is being skipped over. I am sure this week we will hear a lot about how to prepare a Turkey and what football games are coming up and plenty of other stuff that our world has made Thanksgiving, but for us as believers Thanksgiving should be a great celebration of a much different focus.

Thanksgiving is not about having a few days off of school and a lot of food. Its roots are found in a feast that the Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered for in the fall of 1621, not quite a year after the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, MA after a long and difficult journey across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower. These Pilgrims came seeking religious freedom. Although they were English colonists, they had moved to Holland looking for religious freedom before they decided God's will was for them to move to America. Although Thanksgiving wasn't an official holiday at this feast, we trace the roots of this holiday to this early gathering. Their purpose was to thank the Lord for His provision and direction and for the freedom they now did have to worship the Lord.

I recently was listening to the daily broadcast of Family Life and heard that Barbara Rainey had written a book that has recently been released in an audio book format that reminds us of the story of the early Pilgrims. I would encourage you to go their audio website and listen to this production.

We too should be continually thanking the Lord for all of His provisions - not just materially by the way. I often think that our mind would be changed so much concerning what we are thankful for if we heard the thanksgivings offered by our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world who do not have many if any material possessions. And yet they have so much to be thankful to the Lord for.

So this Thanksgiving, and every day really, have an attitude of thankfulness to the Lord and focus on thanking Him simply for who He is. If everything was taken from us and all was wiped away, we could still be thankful for who God is and as believers for who we are in Christ.