Gratitude is an Attitude!

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Thanks - an expression of gratitude

Giving - freely transfer the possession of something to someone; bestow

Thanksgiving - to transfer the gratitude of your heart to someone else; To bestow on someone the sense of gratitude that you have.

As I spend another thanksgiving away from my home, in a place where this is nothing more than a Thursday, I am thinking about what this holiday means and why. I remember a comedian that shared a story of Sir Walter Raleigh and his discovery of tobacco. It was a fictitious phone conservation with the shipping company back in England. In the conservation he is telling them about his shipment of 80 tons of leaves and asked if they got his last shipment of turkeys. The Englishman replies " yes Walt, we got the boat load of turkeys, their running all over London. You see Walt, that's an American holiday!" That really is very true. As an American the holiday of thanksgiving is very special and carries a lot of warm memories and emotions. I would be a liar if I did not admit that during this time the miles separating me from my family and friends seem so much further. I am sure to an outsider this holiday seems somewhat strange. Families getting together, eating so much food hardly anyone can move afterwards. 

Then, with the stuffed turkey now being stuffed in them, all gather around a TV and watch 22 grown men try and kill each other over a ball that is called a “pigskin"! Strange as that might sound I have many memories of fun and fellowship with family and friends during this holiday.

Still, I am grateful that because of Jesus Christ I am a citizen of a kingdom that encourages its entire citizenship to continuously, in every circumstance, give thanks. Though far from the country I call "home", I am surrounded here by friends and spiritual family that everyday share "thanksgivings" for each other, life and our Lord. That's really what living "in Christ" is actually about. Not a once a year event or celebration. 

It is an opportunity for a moment-to-moment experience of expressing gratitude for the Lord, our spiritual family and the eternal life we possess. We also have the joy of sharing that reality with others, through corporate worship; testimonies, Bible studies and helping those that do not know how much God loves them discover that!  I do indeed miss the holiday, but because of Him, thanksgiving can be experienced, every day in every way!