I have long believed that Thanksgiving is treated as a second-class holiday because it is so difficult to commercialize. Only stores that sell food are going to make money from Thanksgiving. Parents don’t take their children door to door dressed as pilgrims to deliver turkey and dressing to their neighbors. Neighborhoods don’t organize tours of homes for people to be amazed my who has the most beautiful Thanksgiving lights outside and decorated trees inside. No one goes to the mall to sit on Squanto’s knee and tell him what they want for Thanksgiving.
Commercialization is not, however, the issue. It is not the fault of the retailers that they are making a killing on Halloween and Christmas. They are simply responding to what the market demands. It is our cultural ingratitude that is the deeper issue.
For most Americans, Thanksgiving Day is about the 3 F’s: Family, Food, and Football. It’s a day. Call it Thanksgiving Day or Turkey Day, it’s still a day. By the way, some people are offended by the use of Turkey Day instead of Thanksgiving Day. What someone else calls it has no bearing whatsoever on how you celebrate it. But I digress.
Christmas, on the other hand, is seen as a season. For some, it is the Christmas Season; for others, it is the Holiday Season. If you are offended by “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” please see the previous paragraph.
Here’s the deal: No matter how much lip service we give to the birth of Jesus, the Christmas season is still largely about us. What we get. What we give. Our decorations. Our celebrations. And none of those is inherently wrong. All our celebrations should be characterized by joy and goodwill.
But a true attitude of Thanksgiving isn’t about us. Some may want to argue that point and say it is about us pausing to give thanks for our blessings. I would suggest it is less about pausing to give thanks for things and more about living as thankful people. We need to be thankful people, not just people who give thanks.
Tru Thnkgiving is less about pausing to give thnx for things and more about living as thnkful ppl. Click To Tweet None of us deserves the things for which we are thankful, even if we worked hard to obtain them (perhaps, especially if we worked hard to obtain them). The Bible says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17) Even the ability to work hard is a gift from God.
Even the ability to work hard is a gift from God. Click To Tweet
Every heartbeat is a gift from God. Every breath is a gift from God. Even if those breaths and heartbeats come in the midst of the most intense tragedies and disappointments of our lives, they are gifts from the God for Whom our lives matter.
Right now, more than I have ever seen it in my almost 55 years on this planet, we need to be thankful people! We need, by God’s grace, to turn off the self-centeredness, not for a day or a season, but turn it off daily! We need to see one another, 365 days a year, as those who are created in God’s image and for whose sins Jesus died.
We can’t afford to get this Thanksgiving wrong!
