27/11/2014

27 November<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Good Morning.

Today in the United States of America is Thanksgiving Day. I find it interesting that it was in the teeth of a world war that President Franklin D Roosevelt signed a bill in November 1941 officially establishing this fourth Thursday in November as a fixed day for the national holiday for giving thanks.

No one can be certain of its origin but the tradition of thankfulness stretches back to the times of the earliest colonies in the New World when post-harvest holidays were celebrated on the weekday regularly set aside as “Lecture Day” which was basically a midweek church meeting.

We’ve hosted several Thanksgiving Day dinners in our home for young Americans who were visiting over the holidays. The first year we did so I remember one young woman introducing us to the practice of post-dinner thanksgiving. We moved round the table from person to person and each one of us was asked to mention something for which we were thankful in the past year.

It struck me as such a simple and graceful thing to do. I realised how easy it is to flit through the days and weeks and months and years without pausing frequently enough to give a simple word of thanks.

Thanksgiving Day exists to teach us how to live in the rest of the year. It is a reminder that gratefulness can be the settled pattern of our lives rather than a one day a year event.

Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things, forgive us for our ungratefulness. Teach us today the grace of thanksgiving that we may live each day with a grateful heart. Amen