Thanksgiving Thoughts: 11.28.19
Picture This
I’ve seen them. You’ve seen them. Those pictures in magazines, on television ads and possibly in the Hallmark movies. The perfect family sitting around the perfectly appointed table which is groaning with all the perfect food anyone could imagine. This is Thanksgiving! Or so we are told...and sold.
As I’ve pondered my own expectations of Thanksgiving some thoughts come to mind. These are truths I want to remember. This is how, by God’s grace and enabling, I want to picture Thanksgiving.
What’s Essential—
Jesus is as clear on this today as He was when He spoke kindly to Martha, His good friend and hostess. “Only one thing is necessary...that you sit at My feet and learn of Me.”
The pressure of time will always make me face my priorities. As I make time to look to Him, to listen to Him, He will show and tell me how to respond this Thanksgiving—in traffic, in the kitchen, when X – (the unexpected) - happens, when the help isn’t there, when disappointments loom.
It’s essential that I prepare my heart and soul in His presence, depending on Him to work in and through me for His good pleasure and for my good. I can then carry in my heart His words and His ways. I can practice His presence in any situation.
Who’s Coming—
Each person I encounter at a gathering is made in the image of God, no exceptions.
Each person I encounter is close to me by God’s grace for a purpose in my life and for a purpose in his or her life. No exceptions.
Jesus is the unseen guest at every table. He said, “I will be with you every day, even unto the end of the age.” He looks at each one with gentle eyes and a welcoming heart. No exceptions.
What’s The Seating Arrangement—
Jesus has told me where to sit. He says to “take the lower seat.”
So why do I mind if someone gives it to me, either at the table, in conversation or in attitude? I will always have a table companion because when I take the lower way, it’s His way too. My soul can silently converse with Him in a crowded room or when I am all alone. Or feel all alone. This I want to picture and remember.
What’s The Menu—
The traditional thanksgiving menu goes way back.
In the time of Moses “all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”
Paul, pictures this meal in more detail when he reminds the Corinthians that “The Lord Jesus, in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup also...saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
This spiritual meal is available to all, no matter what other fare is before us on Thanksgiving Day. Again and again I may eat and drink of the spiritual supply God has provided by the sacrifice of His son. Jesus says, “Come!”
And no matter if this Thanksgiving Day provides all I have longed for in family, the meal and the trimmings, or conversely if I have what I don’t want or want what I don’t have, my spiritual food and drink today is a foretaste of the feast I will enjoy forever in God’s Kingdom. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
Remembering the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, is the ultimate reason for me to give thanks on Thanksgiving Day and every day.
Gratefully in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
As I’ve pondered my own expectations of Thanksgiving some thoughts come to mind. These are truths I want to remember. This is how, by God’s grace and enabling, I want to picture Thanksgiving.
What’s Essential—
Jesus is as clear on this today as He was when He spoke kindly to Martha, His good friend and hostess. “Only one thing is necessary...that you sit at My feet and learn of Me.”
The pressure of time will always make me face my priorities. As I make time to look to Him, to listen to Him, He will show and tell me how to respond this Thanksgiving—in traffic, in the kitchen, when X – (the unexpected) - happens, when the help isn’t there, when disappointments loom.
It’s essential that I prepare my heart and soul in His presence, depending on Him to work in and through me for His good pleasure and for my good. I can then carry in my heart His words and His ways. I can practice His presence in any situation.
Who’s Coming—
Each person I encounter at a gathering is made in the image of God, no exceptions.
Each person I encounter is close to me by God’s grace for a purpose in my life and for a purpose in his or her life. No exceptions.
Jesus is the unseen guest at every table. He said, “I will be with you every day, even unto the end of the age.” He looks at each one with gentle eyes and a welcoming heart. No exceptions.
What’s The Seating Arrangement—
Jesus has told me where to sit. He says to “take the lower seat.”
So why do I mind if someone gives it to me, either at the table, in conversation or in attitude? I will always have a table companion because when I take the lower way, it’s His way too. My soul can silently converse with Him in a crowded room or when I am all alone. Or feel all alone. This I want to picture and remember.
What’s The Menu—
The traditional thanksgiving menu goes way back.
In the time of Moses “all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”
Paul, pictures this meal in more detail when he reminds the Corinthians that “The Lord Jesus, in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup also...saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
This spiritual meal is available to all, no matter what other fare is before us on Thanksgiving Day. Again and again I may eat and drink of the spiritual supply God has provided by the sacrifice of His son. Jesus says, “Come!”
And no matter if this Thanksgiving Day provides all I have longed for in family, the meal and the trimmings, or conversely if I have what I don’t want or want what I don’t have, my spiritual food and drink today is a foretaste of the feast I will enjoy forever in God’s Kingdom. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
Remembering the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, is the ultimate reason for me to give thanks on Thanksgiving Day and every day.
Gratefully in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Carolyn Roper
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