Thanksgiving

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.

How can someone express thanksgiving to His Creator? Let us be clear, God Himself gave us life, and we took it and threw it all away. And then this same God came and gave us another chance, but in a colossal mystery, it cost God His own life. He died so that we could live. Go ahead, shake your head.

The depth and meaning and sacrifice of the cross is fathomless. Not just representative, but experiential in ever dimension and detail. Jesus, Son of the Living God, and indeed God in the flesh, writhes in mortal pain and is tortured by those to whom He gave life. The word “love” is always bandied about when it comes to Jesus, but that word seems so antiseptic and shallow. The cross, in all its gory majesty, speaks with words that cannot be uttered.

The concept of love is understood by sinners on a very selfish level, and we use it for all sorts of people and things. We love music, a job, an aunt, a favorite fishing spot, a story, clothing, a car, and on and on it goes until the word has become so diluted its meaning is practically worthless. And yet God has to communicate what He feels and shows to us by the words that we can understand, and he sends the Spirit to amplify and expand the meaning and reality of those words with a combination of emotions, images, concepts, imaginations, metaphors, and other intangibles that when allowed to collaborate inside our mental kaleidoscopes and guided by the foundation of Scripture, our hearts almost burst with wonder and worship.

Do not think that we have even touched the hem of His garment when it comes to then glory of heaven and the Risen Christ. When we think about Jesus and what He has done we must not stray from Scripture, but we can take the wings of Scripture and soar into spiritual astonishment. Yes, I believe in the deeper life and the things of the Spirit. We as believers have become so earth bound that we no longer spend the necessary time to allow our hearts and minds to fly high above the spiritually mundane. We are afraid of the uncommon because so many abuse it, but we are missing much of what the Spirit has for us!

God loves to see and hear His people dwelling upon Him. He is always ready to reveal another aspect of Himself to those who diligently seek Him, or even enlighten us further about something we already know about Him. You desire to give thanks to God today? Well do not offer Him some perfunctory “We’re thankful” concerning freedom or food or the catch-all “blessings”. The greatest thanks you can give unto our Redeemer is to seek Him at a special time and in a special place until you have made an unmistakable connection that both thrills you and changes you.

Thanksgiving, as it is supposedly projected today, is a diluted representation of the meal between the Pilgrims and a small number of Indians. It would do us well to remember that the Pilgrims, and all the white settlers that followed, systematically decimated the native Americans and by trickery and force took over the land that had been theirs. But it makes Americans feel good to think that white Pilgrims and American Indians dined together in peace and harmony and with God’s blessing. That is a self serving caricature. (I know, cold water.)

But we as believing followers of the Lord Jesus must give more than words and much more than an inaccurate historical reenactment to our God and King. The unsaved will settle in and consume a feast, but while we as believers eat that meal, we should deviate from the common and the norm. We should devote some quality time alone with the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. He is worthy of much more than a perfunctory holiday and a meal upon which we gorge ourselves. Our Savior awaits to meet with us.

Let us give Him the gift of thanksgiving by giving Him the gift of ourselves in His very presence! He has risen from the dead and He is alive!!