Thanksgiving conjures up hopes and visions of family and feasting. Months before November tips the scales, the weight of the holiday pushes so many to so much and sometimes brings with it an Alka Seltzer-for-emotions.
There are others who also have those same wishes of festivity and I’ve noticed that their concerns aren’t what I think about when Turkey Day comes to my mind.
I ask myself, “Why?”
Whether it’s a lonely person in my sphere of influence, a pair of eyes at the rescue mission who is separated from his family with no hope of being reunited, an inmate who still has a few more years to serve or a co-worker who is facing a crisis in the middle of the holidays, it appears that my cares have trumped them over the years. (And these examples don’t even include the worldwide “river of sufferings.”)
Obviously, these needs are 365-wants…but I’ll let Dickens take it from here:
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, `it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.” (A Christmas Carol)
I feel convicted that I often am more concerned about my T-Day menu and family - both of which are healthy, or sort of in the former - than I am about the menu of Jesus.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Thanksgiving can leave us with a full stomach and an empty soul if we don’t deliberately remember that some very near to us may have a full plate of needs.
You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us…A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart… 2 Corinthians 9:11 CSB, Luke 6:4