“Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods” (Psalm 95:2-3).
Thanksgiving—a day, an attitude, or the reflection of your heart? Perhaps all three. In some countries of the world, a day is set aside to commemorate a time of thanksgiving, usually in autumn following the harvest. North of the equator, the day usually falls in the month of November. South of the equator, where seasons are reversed, it may be in March or April. In Canada, it is the second Monday of October. In Liberia, Thanksgiving Day falls on the first Thursday of November. In the United States, traditionally, the fourth Thursday of November is observed as a legal holiday commemorating Thanksgiving.
In other nations, there is no specific national holiday; rather, Harvest Festivals are observed in churches, where congregants are reminded that those who have been blessed should share their abundance with the less fortunate.
The custom of a special day, or time of thanksgiving, is an old one, first inaugurated by God, Himself, as He instructed ancient Israel to set aside an entire week of festivities in gratitude for the harvest which God had provided. Known as the Feast of the Harvest, it was a time to rejoice, to give thanks for the rains and the sunshine that brought the harvest. Before the people celebrated, some of the grain from the harvest was brought to the tabernacle, or temple, and presented to God with singing and rejoicing (See Leviticus 23:9-14).
The event was corporate, involving everyone. Yet it was personal, as each individual reflected on the source of his personal blessings in life. One of the chief benefits was that life came to a grinding halt. The wheels of commerce ceased churning out merchandise, and the plow came to a halt in the furrow. People had time to reflect on the source of their blessings, as they stopped what they normally did and turned their thoughts towards the Almighty. From those reflections came the realization that it was God—not simply their human efforts—who had brought the harvest.
In the past century, there has been a massive migration to the city as more and more people abandon the small farm, or live in the barrio and take a job in a factory, or eke out a living in the big city. Lost is the sense of closeness to the earth, the freshness of turned soil when a plow has just dug a furrow, the smell of summer rain and the bountiful aroma of the harvest at the end of the growing season. And with that passing, we have also lost something of the closeness to nature, and the realization that without the part that God plays in the harvest, we would face inevitable and certain famine.
Some say that today we are a thankless people. And few would deny that the sin of ingratitude is one of our major flaws; yet in some cases, it is not because people are willfully ungrateful of their blessings. The sin of omission results from being too far removed from the harvest, and too busy to take time to acknowledge the goodness of God who sends the sunshine and the rain, who controls the markets which creates the job, allowing you to feed your family.
Ingratitude is often linked to the sin of busyness, even more than the sin of indifference. It is often the result of your failing to take time to count your blessings. Yes, I’m aware of the fact that there is much in life which brings hardship and pain, yet thanksgiving does not reflect on what’s wrong in our lives and world; it focuses on what’s right in a broken, imperfect world. For God’s blessings—not man’s failures—we give thanks. Focusing on His goodness, there can be an endless song of thanksgiving and praise no matter where you live in this old world.
Resource reading: Psalm 100.
