Thanksgiving:

To be thankful… to give thanks… what a wonderful opportunity we have to bring healing and reconciliation to this broken world.

A family celebration darkened by the immediate brokenness of senility and distant devastation of terrorists in Mumbai. We have so much to be thankful for. A warm home filled with love and support. There was enough of everything to share with many more than our company. Vehicles to transport us from our own spacious homes to the house we grew up in. Clothing to keep us warm, protected from the elements and stylish. We have the privilege of knowledge, resources, stability and ability. We have the freedom to choose how to spend our time as a student or working in our chosen fields not because we have to have a job but because we are good at those things. We were born (and adopted) into privilege and it is not something to be ashamed of. However, it makes me think a whole lot. How easy it is for me to put gas in my car, write the check for rent, spend time with friends, choose to work at a church where I am not paid… I feel like I could go on forever and ever. All of which bring great pleasure and deep burden to my heart.

Nothing I have is my own. My education, relationships, faith, comfort, struggles and computer to write this on are all a gift. The world is hardly so simple that the hours I work make the money I use to buy some certain thing. I would not have any job if I had no education or physical ability granted by God or subsidized by those around me. How can I even begin to give thanks for so much?

I guess I am most grateful for the grace that has been so generously given to such an undeserving, miniscule part of creation. When I was younger, and much more insecure, I used to not know how to receive a gift or compliment. I would shake my head and say (and believe) “no, no, you don’t know.” Thinking the compliment or gift was undeserved because I wasn’t anything special. I have tried for years to understand what those little gestures really mean and where they come from. They are of God. They are the small whispers of tenderness and care from a creator who wishes me to be thankful. So I have had to learn to give thanks. To say thank you to someone who does something kind for me. It is not because I am ungrateful, but because I have been disillusioned to think only certain people are worthy. No one is worthy. We are mere instruments of peace and generosity. So let us give thanks to the one from whom it all began; the source of life, love, happiness and generosity.