What is Thanksgiving?

When the girls were home, there were always various boyfriends at our home for Thanksgiving. During college years, they would bring home friends who were to far from their own homes on Thanksgiving. After the girls married, Thanksgiving was celebrated in our home sometime during the Thanksgiving weekend depending on their attendance for the in-laws Thanksgiving. As the grandchildren came along, our Thanksgivings were switched from Thursday to Saturday and have continued to be that way after the grandchildren were grown and married.

For many, many years, there were 30-40 people gathered in our home for a Thanksgiving meal on a Saturday. This Thanksgiving was no exception.  We enjoyed family in Daughter # 2's home with all but two granddaughters and their spouses in attendance.  We are looking forward to Christmas when everyone in our immediate family from Texas to Kansas will gather together.

Thanksgiving is not about the day; it's not about the food or the games or the weather. Thanksgiving is about being thankful for all of the blessings we have been given throughout the year and for the people with whom we are blessed to share the holiday.

What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
    to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
    sing your faithful presence all through the night.

Psalm 92:1-2 (MSG)

How Thankful Are You?

Approximately 1517 people died in the Titanic; about 60 million casualties in WWII; approximately 620,000 Americans died in the Civil War. Those are staggering figures but imagine this: Each year over 10 million children die of hunger related issues, disease and complications .....that's EACH year, not just one event.

Before God created man, He created the angels. There was one angel in particular that was full of pride and thought himself better and more powerful even than... His maker. You remember what happened to him, along with 1/3 of the angels in Heaven. He was tossed out faster than a bolt of lightening.

"The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." Luke 10:17-18 NIV
When Satan was loosed on the earth, then came sin and death and pain and suffering and famine. We are a fallen nation because of the pride and arrogance of Satan, who at one time was one of the most favored angels God created.

As we set down with our families to a bountiful meal this Thanksgiving we need to be reminded that we are a blessed people even with all of the terrible events going on in our nation.
What can you and I do to alleviate some of the suffering caused by this "Fallen Angel"? Can you share your meal with someone in need? Can you take time during the Thanksgiving holiday to share God's love with someone? Can you give of the money God has blessed you with to help even one of those 10 million little children who will die of hunger, disease and complications this year?

"You insult your Maker when you exploit the powerless; when you’re kind to the poor, you honor God" Proverbs 14:31 MSG

And, being the loving God He is, He gives us this promise:

"He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor." Proverbs 22:9 NASB

How's Your Heart?

Max Lucado, one of my favorite authors, tells the story of a young family, whose 13 year old daughter, Taylor, was killed in a skiing accident. The family was devastated.......... Taylor's organs were donated and months later, a still grieving mother's only wish was to  know who received Taylor's heart. She was able to make contact with the recipient and arrange a visit.  Making the trip from Dallas to Arizona, Taylor's mother met the woman Taylor's heart had saved.  She asked if she might listen to Taylor's heart beating inside the woman.  The woman gladly said "Yes, you may."

As Taylor's mother listened to the strong heartbeat, tears fell.  She was not listening to the recipient's heart, but her beautiful daughter,  Taylor's heart. Yes, this heart now belonged to the woman but the heart beating inside her breast was that of a 13 year old girl, taken from this earth too soon.

As Believers, God has given us a new heart.......He has replaced our heart with His. We are new creatures.

^"And I will give you a new heart—I will give you new and right desires—and put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin and give you new hearts of love.^" Ezekiel 36:26 The Living Bible

What about the heart that is beating inside of us? Is it a new heart placed there by God through grace and faith in Him? Do the things we say sound as though they come from God's heart?

  “Don’t you see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and then out of the body altogether? But the things that come out of a man’s mouth come from his heart and mind, and it is they that really make a man unclean."  Matthew 15:17-18 J.B Phillips New Testament

Perhaps all of us need to check our hearts................