Put the Thanks Back into Thanksgiving
By Tom Hendrickson P.G.M.
To me Thanksgiving has been lost
between Halloween and Christmas and has become a forgotten holiday. I went into
a store just before Labor Day and all the Halloween decorations, candy and
costumes were out on display. Then a few weeks later when I went back to
purchase Halloween candy, the Christmas decorations, lights, and artificial
trees were on sale!
I know that it is hard to believe, but
from the time the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and for three and half
centuries, friends and families gathered together sharing the bounty of their
efforts and spending time together strengthening our spiritual bonds. Together
they took time to recognize and thank God for the blessings in their lives.
Then somewhere in time Thanksgiving was hijacked and turned into just a day of
football and shopping.
Thanksgiving has been reduced to just
become a spring board for the Christmas shopping season. November 23rd
is a day spent looking thru the store advertising and preparing for that
strategic shopping adventure, with many of the stores opening on Thanksgiving
evening for the pre-Black Friday shopping. Of course, before the shopping there
is the big meal and plenty of football to be consumed.
To me Thanksgiving should celebrate the ideals which makes our country
flourish, religious and personal freedom, family values, shared prosperity,
stability, bounty, safe harbor and most important
is gratitude to God for all our
blessings.
Now, not every Thanksgiving has been
over the river and thru the woods to Grandma’s house. Some of us ate
Thanksgiving dinner from a Mermite food container dropped out of a chopper at a
Firebase overseas. Some of us ate crackers at a hospital while a loved one was
in Intensive Care, or we ate at a Police Station, at a Truck Stop or at the
Salvation Army.
Sometimes we must look beyond our daily
struggles and examine our lives to count and focus on our blessings. This
lesson was driven home hard for me one day just recently. I was at a local
restaurant and at the table next to mine was a young man in a wheel chair. He
had lost both legs and his right arm as a Marine in Iraq. We had a nice talk
then he said something that moves me to this day. He said that he was really
thankful that he still had his eyesight and he thanks God every day he is still
alive.
We look to the Bible and King David
wrote in Psalms 100:4(NIV) Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts
with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. And Paul wrote in
Ephesians 5:20 (NIV) Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As men of faith and as Sir Knights we
should remember that the spirit of Thanksgiving should be present with us each
and every day. Let us all remember the spirit of Thanksgiving and make our
prayers and thanks be heartfelt every day.
