Thanksgiving Thoughts

Thanksgiving. Right now I’m having a little bit of a hard time writing about Thanksgiving. I’m wondering if anyone even wants to hear anything about the chilly, beautiful, holiday, or if everyone has just about heard enough about being thankful! Really, though, sometimes around fall I do get tired of being told to be thankful, so let’s concentrate on Thanksgiving year round; each day, every day; that way it will already be ingrained in us when Thanksgiving comes around each year.

There are lots of thanksgiving stories out there. I’m going to start by telling you a short, rather humorous story that I heard from my dad.

Once a lady was making turkey for her friends for Thanksgiving. Curiously, one of her friends asked why she cut the turkey in half and baked it in two pans?

“Well,” the lady replied, “I’m not really sure, I guess that’s just the way my mom’s always done it. But you know what, now I’m really wondering why we do that, so I’m going to call her and ask.”

Calling her mom, the lady posed her question.

“Well, that is interesting,” her mom said, ” I really don’t know, I reckon that’s just the way my mom’s always done it. But you know what I’m just going to have to call her and ask why we do that!”

So, the mom called her mom and asked the question.

“You know what,” she answered, “the reason that I always cut my turkey in half and baked it in two pans is because I never had one pan big enough to fit the whole turkey in!”

Everyone got a good laugh for the day and I hope you do also! Comment below what your favorite meaningful or hilarious Thanksgiving story is.

Now, on a more serious note, I’d like to discuss the story from Luke 10:38-42.

3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 4 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, 5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. 7 Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. 8 For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

In this story Mary did something that was very extreme. Opinions vary, but it seems that this bottle of oil could feed a poor man’s family for about a year. Can you imagine just “throwing away” that much money! Like was pointed out in verse 5, why wasn’t the oil sold and the money given to the poor? In that question the point was missed though, yes, giving to the poor is important, but a lot more important is giving directly to Jesus! This shows true thankfulness! I think all of us could handle giving a little more to Jesus, after all, he has given so, so much to us!

What can we give to Jesus? Here’s a random list of things that were running through my mind of things we need to be giving to Jesus.

1. The most important thing; your heart!! You will never regret it!
2. Praise; it’s impossible to give too much.
3. Your time; this includes spending time reading your Bible and talking to Jesus. Another way to give your time is to serve others.

Please have a very thankful Thanksgiving and not only this week, but all year!

Written by Kinza