Every year on the fourth Thursday of November we
celebrate, as a nation, the holiday of Thanksgiving. This
begins the “holiday season”; the official Christmas
shopping count-down starting the day after Thanksgiving.
A seemingly unending stream of parties, sales,
decorating, light-stringing and cooking frenzies ensues.
Pilgrims and turkey give way to Santas and reindeer.
And while it is appropriate that Thanksgiving and
Christmas should be linked, we must ask ourselves if we
are doing so in quite the right way.
Both Thanksgiving and Christmas testify to the
Christian roots of our country. Whether the first
Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims in
Massachusetts or English colonists in Virginia or even
Spanish Conquistadors in Florida, the Thanks Given was
given to God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – not to Allah,
Buddha, Shiva, or Kali or any other number of false gods.
As for Christmas, the word itself comes from Christ
Mass. Our founding fathers sought freedom of religion
and not freedom from religion, hence these two holidays,
Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Alas, these two holidays have largely lost their
meaning. Is stuffing oneself with turkey and pumpkin pie
before settling in front of the television to watch football
an adequate way of giving thanks to God almighty for our
many blessings? Is shopping till we drop quite the right
means of commemorating the birth of Christ, our Lord
and Saviour Who was born in abject poverty?
We should use this “holiday season” to reevaluate our
priorities. Just Whom do we thank and why and how? As
we give thanks to God, to realize that we really should
give thanks first and foremost for the birth of Jesus Christ
– because it is exactly in and through Him that we can
properly give thanks. Our entire lives should reflect the
true meaning of these two holidays – a constant
outpouring to God of Thanksgiving for the gift of His Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ in Whom we have salvation, and
without Whom we have nothing.