2 Corinthians 9:15 — Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

Myra and I thought it would be nice to put a Thanksgiving sign on our front door this year, so we went to one of our local craft stores today to pick one out. “Thanksgiving? Oh yes, we have some dining stuff on an end cap at the back there”. Somehow the stores have skipped straight from Halloween to Christmas and passed on Thanksgiving . And it seems it’s not just the stores. We seem to remember some very nice yard decorations in previous years. This year they seem to have gone straight from ghosts and graveyards to snowmen and reindeers — let us, at least hope the nativities are to come!
What has happened to Thanksgiving? I might be fanciful, but I think that it’s just one more sign of the way God is being driven out of so many lives. Thanksgiving is a uniquely American faith-based festival — consider it’s origin:
Governor Bradford of Massachusetts is believed to have made the first Thanksgiving proclamation three years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. In it, he said “Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of nine and twelve in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred and Twenty-Three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.” How is that going to sit with an increasingly secular society — “Forget the football, bring the wife and kids, meet with the minister and thank The Lord!”
2 Corinthians 9 talks of the joy of generosity and the wonderful gift of redemption. Sometimes it seems that those joys are being driven out of so many lives in favor of possessions, “rights” and image. We need gratitude leaders!
“Gratitude leaders” — does that sound far-fetched? Well the notion appeals to better minds than mine. Dr. David Jeremiah comments – “certain Israelites were assigned to give thanks before the Lord as part of the worship. I wonder what would happen if we had a Pastor of Gratitude on the staff of our churches whose full-time job was to remind members of the congregation of all they have to be thankful to God for.” I think it ‘s a wonderful idea! Sports teams have cheerleaders. Churches have worship leaders. Time to get ourselves some thanks leaders — and take gratitude to the streets.