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‘Seven days of preparing our hearts for Thanksgiving!’ I read, and memories flooded my mind of what Harvest Thanks giving Day was for me as a child. It was the day when we gave up our fruit (served at Lunch) and brought it to church as an offering of Thanks, which then would be distributed to the needy. Now, it’s the best crop or form of things grown in the soil that we bring to offer with Thanksgiving.
I so appreciate the practice of a day in the year that has been set aside as Thanks giving Day for us to consciously think back and recognize the Blessings received and give God His rightful due.
‘But then’, I think out loud, ‘one day has never been and can never be enough to thank Him for all that we have been showered with’. Something compels me to quote from the all time favourite “We Thank Thee” which speaks of the tangible definite that often gets overlooked.
‘We thank Thee…each morning for a newborn day
for the sunshine and the air that we breathe
…for the rivers that run all day
for the little birds that sing along the way
…for the trees and the deep blue sea
….for every flower that blooms, birds that sing, fish that swim
and the light of the moon.
We thank Thee every day as we kneel and pray
that we were born with eyes
to see these things.
….for the fields where the clovers grow
….for the pastures, where the cattle may roam
We thank Thee for Thy love so pure and free…
One of the many Jim Reeves’ numbers that I admit to have had ‘rote-learned’ which now I can give intelligent meaning to.
Guilty, I stand, to the many spells of being a complete haul away from positive gratitude and being instead inundated in negativity, not …. Fixing my thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. …not thinking about things that are excellent and worthy of praise….(Philippians. 4:8).
However, I become overwhelmed, when a little thought I spare to the innumerable forms of blessings in my life even in its simplest – the floodgates of thanksgiving I cannot withhold. A day, then, is quite not enough.
Giving Thanks - A learned behavior – a choice we have today to ponder and prepare, to realize and acknowledge all that we can fill our hearts with and make everyday Thanksgiving Day.