Giving thanks makes
us better people

Thanksgiving has more to meet the eye than pumpkin pie. Beyond turkey, past the mashed, after the stuffing, Thanksgiving fills more than appetites, tenders more than tradition. It is not just another day off work, not merely a sanctioned excuse to watch football, not simply a time to gobble, gobble, gobble.

No other holiday by nature of its name alone can rival Thanksgiving in the transcendent good it does. Thanksgiving declares a simple message: Give thanks. Is it possible to say the word "Thanksgiving" without its meaning dripping into some part of us? Pass the napkins, please.

Giving thanks is something we can all understand. It is something we all can do, regardless of wealth, circumstances, culture, age, politics or religion.

Conscious of it or not, Thanksgiving refills our wells in places and ways we cannot see. It charges us to stop for one day and appreciate with a generous eye whatever much or little we have.

The exact specifications of our thanks differ from person to person, generation to generation, moment to moment. But we all have something for which we can be grateful, whether comfortable lives or the comfort of others in a difficult time. We can be thankful for what we have -- friends, family, our lives -- and for what we do not have. You name it. You know it. Now just give thanks for it.

When we as a country on this one day collectively stop and take account of the things for which we are grateful, it makes us better individuals, it makes us better neighbors, it makes us a better nation, it makes us better citizens of this world.

Why? Because:

» Thanksgiving is not accusatory, but laudatory. Thankfulness seeks out the good, and in doing so transforms fatal cynicism into expectant optimism.

» Thanksgiving is generous. Thanksgiving finds room in our hearts and at our tables. When we give, we get.

» Thanksgiving fills. It rolls out before our eyes the rich contents of our lives and gives us rest in contentedness -- not resigned to having "too little," but revealing that whatever we have is sufficient for the day.

» Thankfulness is healing. It recalls the good and offers a revisionist history with regard to our past, helping us understand fracture and failure not as dead ends, but redirection to a better path.

» Thanksgiving is visionary. It sees the possibilities and lifts our eyes to the prospect of what lies ahead. It wakes us to the hope that escorts every new day.

» Thanksgiving is energizing. It divines new wells to take us through dry and parched lands. It tunnels subterranean reservoirs for getting us through a hard day's night.

» Thanksgiving reconnects us with people. It reminds us of the people in our lives who shaped us, sacrificed for us, loved us and did not give up on us. Thanksgiving leads us back to others. Thanksgiving leads us back to God.

In giving thanks, we realize that the best goods in life are things we could never attain, win, earn or buy. Love, peace, trust, friendship, faith, hope, life itself -- these things can only be given. And what can we give in return? Give thanks.

And whatever I do in word or deed, I do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17.