Reflection: "Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good"
There are so many great things about Thanksgiving: food, family and friends, the Dallas Cowboys, Black Friday sales (I’m not actually sure these are good), and food. Most of all, however, Thanksgiving is a day for us to meditate on the many gifts God gives us: “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee” (1 Chron 29:14).
In a world that praises self-sufficiency, the practice of giving thanks to God is a way we resist the the cultural zeitgeist. For Christians, the act of thanksgiving is a declaration of our complete dependence on God. When we thank him for all the gifts he gives us—our families, friends, health, homes, jobs, and whatever else we’re thankful for—we are saying that God is the ultimate reason that we have them. “We are his people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand” (BCP 9). This truth makes us vulnerable; we are fragile, contingent creatures who rely on God for our very existence. While the vulnerability and intimacy that come with that recognition may initially frighten us, God has proven himself over and over again to be a faithful provider who gives us exactly what we need. The Gospel reading for Thanksgiving Day from St. Matthew 6 emphasizes God as a good giver (BCP 266): “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” God provides for all things and we can trust that he will continue.
It is for this reason that thanksgiving is a necessary spiritual discipline for all Christians. This is why we pray a Prayer of Thanksgiving every day at the end of Morning and Evening Prayer and after receiving the Eucharist. Yet beyond our corporate acts of thanksgiving, it is necessary for us to specifically recollect what we are thankful for on an individual level. Doing so has a wonderful effect on our imagination because it causes us to see reality in a new light as we recognize the ongoing redemption of all things. If we are truly thankful for all that God gives us, nothing is “common” or “mundane”; rather, everything becomes sacred because all is gift. The Thanksgiving holiday is a wonderful time to intentionally reflect on all that we’re thankful for. But we shouldn’t stop there! Thanksgiving should be a tool in our spiritual discipline tool belt that we regularly use.
The discipline of giving God thanks is not purely about remembering. Thanksgiving should be translated into praise “not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up our selves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days” (BCP 19, 33). We recognize our dependence on God, seeing him at work in all our circumstances. In response, we offer God praise, not merely through words but through lives that properly respond to the great gifts we receive from him.