A Feast of Remembering

        Another Thanksgiving Day is almost upon us. I always look forward to this day with great anticipation (but then, I’m not the one doing the cooking). I look forward to spending time with my family (including my spiritual family in Christ), sharing our common gratitude around a traditional meal that is full of simple but profound meaning. It is a meal simply to remember God, to remind us of God’s bountiful blessings upon our nation, our family, and our own selves. It is a time to stop and remember where everything came from, to honor God as the source of all that is good.  For that reason, Thanksgiving is perhaps the most Biblical of all national holidays, for it is in keeping with the spirit of gratitude that is so frequently enjoined in scripture.
 

        Such memorial thanksgiving feasts are important, lest we forget our God who blesses us. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses continually reminds the Israelites to remember what they once were, and what God has done for them. After recounting their history and all that God had done for the Israelites, Moses warns: “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.' But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Dt 8.11-18)
 

        God knew Israel’s tendency to forget. Therefore, he  established the various feast days for Israel, such as Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Booths or Ingathering (Lev 23). These were feasts  of thanksgiving and remembrance. He has done the same for us as Christians, establishing the weekly Lord’s supper, which soon came to be called the “Eucharist” (meaning “Thanksgiving”). Thus, it is only fitting that we as a nation, blessed so bountifully by God, set aside a feast day of thanksgiving. While we have days to remember fallen heroes or great leaders, and days to remember past wars or significant events both great and terrible, Thanksgiving is a day simply to remember God, and to give him thanks. So enjoy the time with family, the parades, the football, the traditions, and the turkey. But in it all, remember the Lord your God, for it is he who has provided the fixins’.

 © 2006 Randy Hohf