Giving Thanks

It's the pause before the annual consumeristic Nirvana. Yes, I am talking about that glorious moment that begins at the crack of dawn, or just before when all my lunatic friends and I line up at the gates and shop until we drop, or we get to noon, whichever happens first. At noon the fabulous sales are over and it's just regular shopping, anyone can do that any time. I don't know why this particular activity should be worth all the effort, but trust me it is. I feel like high fiving all the retailers when I buy something....hey dude, check me out!

Oops, I forgot, this is about Thanksgiving. Sadly, I think I am not alone when it comes to this fault. Lots of us seem to see Thanksgiving as the precursor to the good stuff. This is sad. It didn't used to be this way. In fact, when I was a girl, Thanksgiving was a much awaited holiday. My grandparents would come from Virginia and bring us goodies from the farm. We would have turkey and stuffing and all the accessories and it would be an event. Why did it stop being an event?

Just a speculation, I think we can have an event involving food anytime we want. In fact, I know we can. We have restaurants everywhere, grocery stores, fast food, coffee shops, tea shops, you name it we got food covered. A special meal isn't special any more. Special meals with family is still special, but many of us aren't around family and gathering for a few days is hard. Many wait for a longer break at Christmas.

As for being thankful, I don't know. Many of my friends and family are people who practice an attitude of gratitude. I really know very few people who are blind to their blessings. All of us have time when we need to be reminded of them, but mostly the only people I know who are ungrateful are people who are ungrateful always, Thanksgiving included. They can find the grey cloud in every silver lining and I don't think anything short of the unconditional love of God will change that. So, it's not like we aren't thankful.

Maybe it's because the history has lost its meaning to us in the age of political correctness. Now that we are told our pilgrim ancestors were nothing short of bandits coming in here and taking this land that belonged to someone else. That they were lazy and foolish and treated the Native Americans so badly, we may feel some hesitance to celebrate a holiday connected to that. If this is the case, let me say this is sad. While all of that may be true, what is also true is that they came for religious freedom which we seem so eager these days to give away. They paid a pretty hefty price for this freedom and while they certainly made mistakes and chose some very bad priorities, they also laid for us a tradition of faith that formed who we are as a country. North America is far from the only land that was settled by people who wandered in and claimed some land, and while I would never say Native American's were at fault, they also contributed to the problems. No one is perfect, that's the reality. It's really time we stop bashing our forefathers and celebrate their faithfulness and praise God He redeems our mistakes.

I am for stopping the entire desire to rewrite history to make it fit a political persuasion, of any type. Let it be what it is and learn from it. Those who refuse to learn from history are destined to repeat it. Apologizing for it doesn't seem that effective.

So, be thankful this Thanksgiving. Celebrate your heritage as flawed as it may be and remember our Savior is the descendant of some interesting ancestors. We can be thankful not that our heritage is flawless, but that our God redeems it all. Thank goodness.