This week we celebrate Thanksgiving.  Yet, I wonder how often we really have given thanks.  I mean, it is one thing to utter the simple, “Thank you.”  It is quite another to truly give thanks.  Do we even understand how powerful thanksgiving is?  God has said in His Word that the refusing to give thanks is part of what has caused us to be estranged from Him. (Romans 1:20-21)  We are told by God to give thanks in everything. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)  And the giving of thanks by one leper astounded Jesus. (Luke 17:12-19)

I think that thanksgiving, like forgiveness, has the power in our spiritual lives that water has in the physical world.  Yes, water appears to be just a nice, helpful addition to our world.  Yet, water can create and destroy with breath-taking power.  We can carve rock with water.  Frozen water can crack the strongest structures.  We take it for granted.  Yet, water is one of the strongest forces in the universe.

This is thanksgiving.  It puts us in a right relationship with God.  It transforms our thinking and prepares us to see the work of God in the world.  May we be truly thankful this week.

Something to think about,

Pastor John