Thankful

According to my “Webster’s Third New International Dictionary”, the very definition of “thankful” is:

‘not expressing or feeling gratitude’

…

My bad, that’s thankless. Ah, here we are!

‘conscious of benefit received and kindly disposed toward the benefactor’

Much better. Although it’s hard to wade through that. So let’s examine this, eh?

“Conscious of benefit.” Conscious meaning aware of, benefit meaning something good happening. So we can take this to mean that when one is thankful, they are aware of good stuff happening. The next word being received, we can take this to mean that being thankful means that one is aware of good stuff happening to themselves.

“Kindly disposed toward the benefactor.”

I take this to mean that not only should one be aware of the good stuff happening to them, but also of a pleasant manner towards the one causing the good stuff to happen to them.

My benefactor is God.

He is the one who has strengthened me through times of trial, through times of loneliness, pain, and fear. The benefit He has given me has been His Word, and the God-breathed truth inside of it.

And what is my response?

Well, I should be thankful. But the issue at hand is that I’m not always conscious of the benefit my benefactor has given me. There are definitely times in which I realize, “WOW. That was totally God answering prayer,” or, “WOW. God really knows what He’s doing, eh?” or whatever the circumstances. But not always do I realize this, and in fact all of us are prone to boast in ourselves, focusing on what we’ve done throughout the year, what we’ve accomplised all by ourselves, because boy, I am really able to do that on my own!

Newsflash: Nope.

God’s the One who keeps me breathing. God’s the One who keeps those electrical impulses in my brain sparking. God’s the One who keeps my heart pumping oxygen-rich blood to the various organs of my body, without which I would fall over and be dead before I hit the ground.

So what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Life. The fact that God actually has decided to make us. The wonderful curiosities He built into us, and all the crazy creatures that He planted in their own special spots. Bees. As much as I don’t like ’em, they keep our flowers pollinated. Without ’em (they don’t even deserve a full “them”), you can just forget about roses, petunias, carnations, tulips, daffodils, sunflowers, etc. God knew that, and from those flowers the bees create a wonderful sweet and sticky substance known as honey. He knew that too.

And then after Creation, came the fall of humanity. Sinful natured all.

Years after, untold years after, there came a man from Nazareth. He wasn’t really accepted there. He had some quite radical ideas.

He was no ordinary man. Fully man, and fully God, Jesus Christ came down from heaven on high to sacrifice Himself for humanity, to appease the Lord one final time. To defeat sin, upon the cross.

Make that two things that I’m thankful for.

And yes, there’s more. I am also thankful for my family, without whom I would be lost and confused, and my wonderful friends, without whom I would be lonely and bored. Yeah, you! That’s right! Stand up, take a bow, give yourself a hand!

Happy Thanksgiving all. Rest in the comfort of our Lord.

The First Annual Thanksgiving Rant!

I am here to rant about Thanksgiving. No, I do love the holiday. There is nothing wrong with celebrating the Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth and giving thanks for where we are today. There is especially nothing wrong with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, peach cobbler, or whatever else you may enjoy. Nothing wrong at all. Stop drooling.

What IS wrong is these commercials before Thanksgiving. I was watching Jeopardy! when a commercial for Macy’s came on. At least I think it was Macy’s. I immediately tuned out when I saw it wasn’t about anything I cared about. I mean, how many sales can you have?! But then it got my attention with people wearing Santa hats looking all happy, jolly, and “Ho, ho, ho!” Meanwhile, “Santa Claus is Coming To Town” played in the background. It immediately got me thinking. WHY do these stores start advertising for Christmas before the turkey has even been bought?!

Black Friday also troubles me. Last year, a Wal-Mart employee was killed after a horde of shoppers rushed inside the store to be the first to snag  the latest items. They trampled him and he was pronounced dead around 6 in the morning, an hour after the doors had been opened. This is what is wrong with our society today. We must be the first to get the new toy for our kids, first to get the new SMART phone, first to get the new car, first, first, first. Why can’t we slow down, be calm about things? I’ve waited a couple weeks to get the new Alex Rider book, one because I have a gift card, and two, I keep forgetting to give it to my dad to use when he comes home from work. But I wait. No intense whining, just, “Darn,I forgot to give you my card again today, Dad. No worry, I can wait.” 

Pass the cranberry sauce, please.