day 4-turkey day itself

this is randy.  and you might have noticed i’ve got this thing for thanksgiving.  the whole 4 days of thanksgiving thing was my idea.  why?  well, the short of it is thanksgiving gets short-changed.  you when i first saw christmas decorations this year?  on my birthday, nov. 2, in wal-mart.  my halloween candy was still warm in the bag when up went the trees, the santas, the snowmen, and the lights.  i’m not opposed to christmas, don’t get me wrong, i’m just all about what a holiday means more than the good feelings they inspire or the lucrative marketing options they engender.  so thanksgiving, after easter, is probably my favorite holiday.

why would i like thanksgiving when i don’t even like cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie isn’t really my favorite desert?  because its probably the most christian holiday we have here in america.  sure we celebrate God’s gift of Jesus Christ on christmas and that Child’s glorious resurrection from the dead on Easter, but 1 thessalonians 5:18 says, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (ESV).  its God’s will that everyone who has been saved by His grace through Christ’s blood be thankful people.  its what He wants from me.

and it only makes sense we ought to respond that way.  When Christ healed a group of ten lepers, only one returned to demonstrate his gratitude.  He didn’t wait until he had been declared clean by the priests; he didn’t even go home first to show his family; he headed straight to the man who had freed him from the debilitating, deadening disease and thanking him for new life.  Christ praised this one out of the ten for his great faith.

How much worse of a debilitating, deadening disease have we been saved from?  how much more precious is the new life given us, who were condemned to death forever?

we have far more to be thankful for than any other person in the world.  let’s thank our great Father of Lights (james 1), who gives only good and perfect gifts to His children.  not just today, but all days.

and enjoy that turkey.  byron does…