HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving! Millions of people are uttering these words today. These seasonal words are now resonating over telephones, e-mails, greeting cards and letters. And why not? The gracious predictability of God's common grace has once more brought us to this year's celebration of Thanksgiving Day. It is a day on which families open their doors and hearts to loved ones and to not-so loved ones. It is a day marked by benign (?) over-indulgences of food, drink and fun. It is also a time of reflection: some families recall the sound foundation with which the Lord has graciously blessed them- their children and grandchildren being living fruit of their tiresome labor and prayers; others lament their wandering from those foundations but are thankful that things are not as bad as they could (should) have been; others still, younger families in particular, are now starting to build their own foundation of godliness and righteousness which will bode their posterity well.

It's also a time of prayer. Families will typically hold hands, bow heads and offer thanks to God for His Being and His gifts, some of which are lavishly spread before their very eyes on the dinner table. Even unbelievers will thank God for the material benefits He has so freely granted them, and especially for that which they are about to gorge. Little do the know that they are actually bringing a curse upon themselves for refusing to acknowledge God's temporal blessings as instruments of His long-suffering attempts to draw them unto repentance.

Believers value this day as a token representation of their entire way of life. We are mindful of the fact that thanksgiving is an inseparable dimension of the joyful worship of our Creator and Redeemer God, Ps 100: 1-5. We are also cognizant of the reality that, in view of God's saving mercies to us in Christ, our thanksgiving is to be reflected in every aspect of our lives, Rom 12:1-2. While we also thank God for His temporal blessings, above all we are thankful for His sovereign predestinating grace with which He chose us in His Son Jesus Christ before the foundations of the earth; for sending His Son to live a sinless life and then to lay it down sacrificially and substitutionally for these chosen ones; for the Father’s and the Son’s sending their Holy Spirit to regenerate and seal their elect ones until Christ comes again to gather them and to present them to His Father. Rom 8:29, 30; Eph 1: 3-14; 4:30; Tit 3:5-7; 1 Cor 15:21-24; etc.

Thanksgiving for believers therefore is our reasonable service of gratitude to our Triune God for His monergistic redemption of our lost souls. This is our greatest gift; more than that, Jesus Christ is our greatest gift. Therefore, while we cherish this special day by feasting, prayer, praise and love, we are at the same time grateful that it is only symbolic of the great Day when Christ appears "... a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Heb 9:28. On that Day He will gather His elect from the four winds and they, one huge family of innumerable members, will live eternally in His presence in unrestricted, unfeigned thanksgiving. Above all, we will enjoy a feast, rather the feast, not of mere turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce, and not only the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, but even higher than that, the feast of seeing our God as He is. That will be the day, a day which is even longer than a thousand years! Then we will fully share and enjoy the meaning of thanksgiving.