“Christmas needs to be farther away from Thanksgiving.” Have you ever heard that? Maybe, like me, in a moment of frustration,
you’re guilty of uttering those words yourself. As I
was lamenting, ok whining, about this very thing recently, God took me in
another direction and showed me a different perspective to this situation that,
up to this point, I had not considered.
I know that Thanksgiving gets practically swallowed up in
Christmas. Often there is Christmas music and lights and people are talking
Christmas before Thanksgiving arrives.
If you turn the TV on, you are inundated with Christmas commercials
telling you everything you or someone you know needs or wants for Christmas
eons, it seems, before Thanksgiving Day. It seems that no one pays attention to,
or cares about Thanksgiving. We even
start Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving Day, in fact sometimes the food has
not even digested and the family is still gathered around the table as we run
out the door to hit the retail stores.
It seems that Thanksgiving gets trampled in the hurry to get
to Christmas. As I was thinking about
what a travesty that Thanksgiving gets ignored God showed me that Thanksgiving
placed right before Christmas is perfect.
That’s right, I said PERFECT.
It is perfectly placed because we cannot truly appreciate the
Christmas season until we have an attitude of thankfulness for all that God has
given us. Thanksgiving, in a way, can
usher in an outlook of gratefulness not just for what we have but for the one
who gives us everything. Thanksgiving is
a time of reflection on everything God has provided.
A thankful, content heart is key. Thankful hearts don’t need to stress about
one more party, gift, dinner, or decoration.
Thankful hearts can say like Paul, “I have learned to be content
whatever the circumstances.”
True thankfulness has at its core generosity. The more thankful we are, the more generous
we become. Christmas is a time of
generosity because God lavished his love on us when he sent his son as a light into
this dark world. The baby born on
Christmas Day was God, the father being extravagant to us. We cannot be truly thankful, and content until we unwrap the
gift given over 2000 years ago. Christmas
is bound to be a letdown if you have never set apart Christ as Lord of your
life. If you have never accepted the gift
of God, now’s the perfect time to open the first Gift of Christmas. God’s gift of love to you.
Lets begin Christmas by being thankful for all that we have already, and for a time to celebrate God; Thankful for what we will accomplish this season and thankful that the gift of Christ transcends any other gift we could ever want or need.
