Thanksgiving

Way back in time - 3000 or so years ago - God was making a people for Himself. After He brought the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt, He began to set up rules for them to live by so that these "600,000 men plus women and children" (Exodus 12:37) could be governed rightly by Moses and those he appointed to help settle disputes. God was to be the head of this government and the first rules, or the ten commandments, were a summation of all the details He would later give about how to love God and love your neighbor.

Part of what God instituted were some feasts. One that He established was called the "Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor." (Exodus 23:16) Our celebration of Thanksgiving is a lot like this feast. The only trouble is we forget to be thankful.

Today we are so far removed from the land and the actual growing of our food, that we forget that it is God that allows us to have food at all. Many farms may be agricultural giants with huge irrigation systems and lots of chemicals to make things grow and giant machines to do the work of planting and harvesting but we must still spend on God to supply rain to fill the irrigation ponds and the sunshine to grow our food. Wind, hail, floods, drought, heat and frost are all beyond our ability to control.

So even though we may depend on Publix or Whole Foods, Aldi's or WalMart for our food, without God's blessing we would have nothing to eat. Because we are so blessed with an abundance we should give God thanks with a grateful heart. It is not "Turkey Day", it is THANKSGIVING! I think a large part of being thankful is giving back to the community. That can be done by giving to a local food bank or helping out at a soup kitchen because there are people even in America who don't get enough to eat. 

How could a $20 donation or an extra bag of canned goods or a turkey be used in your community to share the love of Jesus? Jesus was about meeting needs with compassion as He went about speaking truth about the kingdom of God. Now those of us who call ourselves Christians are to be His hands and feet in the communities where He has placed us.