In a moment I will be going into the kitchen to lift the turkey out of the fridge for Nancy, in the full and certain expectation that she will do the rest. This year we are not celebrating at our house, but will be driving a ham and a supplementary turkey across town to celebrate with the kids.
And all of it is a celebration of gratitude. But thanksgiving ought not to be treated like a massive blanket that you throw over all the good stuff you like. No, the biblical pattern that is modeled for us is that of the grateful heart and its deep desire to itemize. Praise Him, sun and moon (Ps. 148:3). Praise Him, dragons and deeps (Ps. 148:7). Praise Him, fire and snow (Ps. 148:8). Praise Him, all you crawling insects (Ps. 148:10). God has created the world in such a way that if we set our hearts to thank and praise Him for “all things,” we will never be in danger of running out. “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess. 5:18).
I am grateful for my family. I have a blessed marriage and a wonderful person to share it with. My children are all grown, they all have godly spouses, and they are all walking with the Lord. There is no greater joy than when children walk in truth. “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4). On top of that, we have 16 grandchildren, who are faithful Christians also, each in their station. “Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel” (Ps. 128:6).
I am grateful for my nation. I was privileged to be born into a heritage of liberty, and to have experienced a great deal of that liberty. At the same time, I was born in an era when that liberty has come under siege, and hence have been given a greater gift than that of enjoying liberty — the gift of being privileged to fight for it, in order to pass it on to someone else. I am grateful, therefore, for the fact that the timbers of our republic are crawling with regulatory termites. Gives us something to do.
I am grateful for the congregation that gathers with me to worship God every Lord’s Day. I am grateful for the elders and deacons who labor faithfully with me in this work of ministry, and I am grateful for the saints at Christ Church. They are a faithful, giving, loving, bunch. One of the principal things the apostle Paul was grateful for was the work of God in the people he love (Rom. 6:17; 1 Cor. 1:4; Eph. 1:16), and this is a sample of apostolic behavior that these saints have made easy to imitate.
And last, clustered together as small tokens of the great gift itself — the mere fact of created life, and then the renewed gift of forgiveness for having wrecked the first gift — I find numerous blessings scattered all over the place. Let us begin with the mashed potatoes and gravy, and finish with the row of pies. And a late autumn sky with an understated sunset, the gift I saw yesterday. Clear roads, and roads with a snow floor. Hot and cold running water. Medicines. Hot coffee. Good guitar music. More books than I can read. My first grade teacher who taught me to read. Bible search software. My wife’s neck. Butterball turkey. Stories about Archenland. Richard Wilbur poems. Choral performances. Electronic tablets. Aspirin tablets.
And of course, the indescribable gift (2 Cor. 9:15).
An Internet that affords us greater communion.