A General Thanksgiving
With her typical combination of violence and humor, Flannery O’Connor once wrote in her prayer journal, “When I think of all I have to be thankful for I wonder that You don’t just kill me now because You’ve done so much for me already & I haven’t been particularly grateful.”
I hope and pray that whatever state and mood you find yourself in today, that you do have a wonderful Thanksgiving. A day in which the spirit of gratitude grabs ahold of you for however long it wills, and you find yourself giving thanks for the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
God has given us so much to be thankful for. The good work of loving our neighbors, but most of all the gift of His mercy and love that give us the hope to do that work, however imperfectly.
Jesus is the way, the truth and life. His love for you was written in blood before you were born, his grace is your hope for today and his promise is your life for tomorrow.
I’ll leave you with a prayer, a bit more appropriate for the dinner table than Flannery’s. I encourage you to read it aloud with your family and friends today.
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
Happy Thanksgiving