Some thoughts are worth repeating, so enjoy this letter from Thanksgiving week, 2020. Happy Thanksgiving!  

When I was growing up, my grandparents and other extended family were faithful in remembering important days like my birthday, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, graduations and others. My great-grandmother Ford, my mother’s maternal grandmother, used to send me a birthday card each year. Enclosed within it was a shiny penny for each year as I was old. For several years, my other grandparents would send me $2 dollar bills, some of which I kept. As I got older, they started to send me U.S. Savings Bonds.  

And through the years, my parents were always faithful in remembering me on these special days. One birthday gift that I cherish is the birdfeeder that my dad gave me a couple years before he died. It hangs so that I can see it from the kitchen window. My dad had one just like it outside his kitchen window. When I look at the birds enjoying their food, I pause and remember my dad and thank God for such a good, caring and loving father. 

This week the Thanksgiving holiday encourages everyone to be thankful. But as Christians, we don’t reserve a particular day or season of the year to say, “Thank you.”  As the Apostle Paul reminds us, we are to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18). We are to bathe all our praying in “thanksgiving” (Phil. 4:6). And every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in worship, we remember to “give thanks” to God (1 Cor. 11:24).  

The Greek word in the New Testament that is translated “to give thanks” is eucharistein. It is derived from two words: eu (good or well) and charis (grace). Greek scholar Rick Renner writes that these two words compounded together describe “an outpouring of grace and of wonderful feelings that freely flow from the heart in response to someone or something.¹ 

The simple act of giving thanks embodies the origin of the word “thank” which is derived from the Latin tongere (to know).  When our daughter Isabella receives a gift from her grandparents or other friends or relatives, we encourage her to write a “thank-you” note. By doing so, she acknowledges the source of the gift, the person who is responsible for giving it. 

Paul writes, “I thank my God every time I remember you.” (Phil. 1:3)  As you reflect on the meaning of thanksgiving this week, will you begin with the Source of all good things? The God who is the Source of life, love and hope. Here are a few practices that might be a blessing to you as well as to others: 

• Begin a gratitude journal. Daily, acknowledge something or someone for which you are thankful.   
• Write a prayer of thanksgiving. Paul’s epistles serve as a model. For example, 1 Cor. 1:4-9; Phil. 1:3-11; Col. 1:3-14. 
• Write a psalm of thanksgiving — Psalms 100, 118, 136.
• Write a thank-you note to someone. Let them know how much you appreciate them as a person. Thank them for the way they shaped or influenced you. If there’s a thank-you note you’ve been putting off, this is a great time to write it.  
• Be thankful for the things that bring you joy. We can even be thankful for the things you don’t have.      
• Remember to give thanks for the small things we often overlook. 

HRBC, thank you for loving my family and me. Thank you for your grace and love.  I thank my God every time I remember you.   

With thanks and praise of our God,