Thanksgiving Musings

For that which was..

For the which is..

For that which will be..

Thanks be to God.

I came across this prayer a number of years ago. And when I did, it made me stop and think. To think how easy it is to be thankful for all those things we have in abundance. What isn’t so easy is to be thankful for all that we have experienced, the highs and lows, the mountain-top experiences and the valleys of death, the deserts and the abundant harvests. But those are the things that have made us who we are today and God has been present in that transformation and molding of our being: in the words of the doxology, “That power working within us that can do so much more than we can ask and imagine.”

But then we can also be thankful for the actions of others: for everyone, everywhere, who either speaks out or acts against aggression, who stands up for those in need, who are willing to risk their own lives for someone else. When you remember that for which you are thankful this coming weekend, what do you think of? Things? People? Life events?

I recently came across this quote by W.J. Cameron “Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” and so I began to wonder…. “Maybe” [paraphrasing, the Grinch] “thanksgiving, perhaps… means a little bit more!’ Maybe, instead of it being a passive occasion when we are thankful for others, for bounty we have received, we need to be active. We need to be on the front lines of the fight for equality, for justice, for the right of every person not to go to bed hungry, to have safe and secure lodging, an eduction, to have accessible and affordable health care.

Here are some new words to the Thanksgiving hymn, ‘Come, Ye Thankful People Come’ that we sing each year at this time. Instead of the word ‘those’ insert your own name as you read it for it isn’t those ‘others’ who were responsible for action, but all of us. And yes, there’ll be times we will lose the fight, but that is no excuse for not trying in the first place.

“Come ye thankful people, come

Raise the song of thankfulness!

Those who sought to speak the truth

Putting others before self;

Those who spoke and lost the fight

Silenced now and evermore;

Come ye thankful people, come

Thank them now and evermore!”

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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