Why Thanksgiving – and Giving Thanks – Are So Important

Thanksgiving Day can bring many things to mind: Mouthwatering aromas emanating from the kitchen. A festive table covered with turkey and dressing and “all the fixin’s.” Get-togethers with family and friends. Football games on TV. Annual Christmas parades. 

These holiday traditions have certainly become integral to our annual fourth Thursday of November celebration, but the primary reason for the observance remains to give thanks to God for all He has done for us.

We could have a spirited debate about how the American observance of Thanksgiving Day originated. When I was in school, we talked about the first thanksgiving shared by the Pilgrims and the Indians. (Native Americans, as we know them now.) And there’s solid historical evidence of a harvest feast the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag people shared in 1621. Some historians, however, point to an earlier event, a thanksgiving service held by Spanish settlers in 1565 in what is now known as St. Augustine, Florida.

 

It wasn’t until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving holiday, an effort to unite the country during the Civil War. The tradition of observing Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of each November was fixed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress in 1941. But how the day got started might be a moot point – the important thing is that we still celebrate it. I fondly recall the first phrase of the “Doxology,” still sung in many churches today: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow….” 

 

Not everyone, of course, bows before the God of the Bible when they give thanks. I think of the s scene from the movie “Talladega Nights” in which the main character, race car driver Ricky Bobby, scans the table covered with food mainly from fast-food restaurants and proceeds to “say grace” over the food. 

 

He prays to “Dear Lord Baby Jesus,” expressing thanks for the “bountiful harvest of Domino’s, KFC and always delicious Taco Bell.” He chooses to pray in that manner, he later explains, because “I like the Christmas Jesus best.” A foolish scene no doubt, but it captures the confusion in many households when deciding to whom to be thankful. It also underscores the reality that many of us choose to worship and be thankful to the God we want rather than the God who is.

 

In our pluralistic society, the mention of God prompts myriad images. Expressions of thanks might be more ritualistic than heartfelt. Yet on the day that marks the official start of the Christmas season, it remains a wonderful thing that through the centuries, men, women and children have endeavored to acknowledge and thank the Creator God who truly is the source of all things.

 

Recently I heard an interesting distinction between gratitude and thanksgiving. Gratitude is a feeling – being grateful for something. Thanksgiving is an action – the conscious giving of thanks to whomever we feel gratitude. I can feel grateful, for instance, to my wife for an act of kindness, but if I don’t express my thankfulness for what she’s done, I might seem ungrateful or that I’m taking her for granted. 

 

The Scriptures abound with declarations of thanksgiving to the Lord, the One from whom, as the words from the Doxology assert, “all blessings flow.” One of the first Bible verses I memorized was “in everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Another translation says, “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

 

This puts a different perspective on the importance and role of thanksgiving. It’s easy to feel grateful or thankful when things are going well; it’s not as simple in times of trial and adversity. How can we be thankful for that chronic pain, the empty checkbook, the cherished relationship that’s been seriously damaged?

 

I always think back to my friend Albert, whose lifetime has served him and his family with more challenges than many of us can imagine. Despite that, he’s one of the most cheerful, encouraging followers of Jesus I’ve ever encountered. He even wrote a testimonial booklet called “Saying ‘Thank You’ When You Don’t Feel Thankful.” Albert could be the spokesperson for “giving thanks in all circumstances.”

 

When King David brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem after a resounding victory over the Philistines, he declared these words: “Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of His wonderful acts. Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice” (1 Chronicles 16:8-10). 

 

This psalm of praise, which echoes many other psalms the shepherd-king wrote, captures the attitude the Lord wants us to have on this Thanksgiving Day. We might have been blessed in so many positive ways that we've lost track of them all. Or we might be dealing with unrelenting hardships, making it difficult to feel thankful. Or we might have a mixture of both. 

 

Regardless of what’s going on in our lives right now, we’re called to exercise our faith, as the apostle Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 5:20, by “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” I wish you a greatly blessed Thanksgiving – in the Lord!