While universities and school districts nationwide call for a “decolonizing” of Thanksgiving as a “Day of mourning”, today continues to be one the largest travel days as people go to be with family. As much of our nation’s origins continue to be mythologized or reconstructed by later generations, we continue to recognize it as a time to give God thanks for His provisions, both personally and in the amazing founding of our country. Whether they have comprehended it or not, millions of Americans observe this holiday by thinking thankful thoughts for what we have received, particularly this gathering of family and friends.
Back in the 16th through even the 20th centuries, it would have been almost universally understood that “Giving Thanks” meant acknowledging God as the Creator and Source of all good things, namely of life and prosperity, and it was assumed that this was to be done with gratitude towards Him! You can even see this in the history of American art; in the various depictions of Thanksgiving, you have the God-defined family gathered, usually around the presentation of a platter of food, and often you would see the group with folded hands and bowed heads in prayer. Despite the secularization of our society, much of the impulse to “give thanks” has not gone away, which in itself is a powerful argument for the existence of the God who sustains our world.
Not so long ago, the very influential atheist Richard Dawkins admitted that though he sought to disprove God, he also liked Christmas carols, and preferred the Christian culture around him over certain encroaching ideologies, those found in both liberalism and Islam. He’s now seen to be an enemy of the left because he holds to the biological realities of male and female. Dawkins blurred the categories of reality in his argumentation, claiming irrefutable evidence in biology while appealing to “preferable cultural influences”. Now what is true about Richard Dawkins and Christmas also applies to Americans and Thanksgiving. They think that what they are observing is secular, while the foundations that hold it up are profoundly Biblical. Giving thanks is profoundly personal!
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and the law of gravity keep us alive on this planet, but we cannot thank that. We have to thank the Giver of it, as a Person. Both the orderliness of these laws and the innate impulse to attribute it to someone points to our personhood, which points to a personal Creator, to whom we continue to thank. When a secular person says, “I’m thankful for my family, my life and opportunities I’ve had”, I don’t think they’re lying, even if they don’t go far enough!
Jesus rightly condemned the religious leaders in John 5 for meticulously studying the scriptures, while refusing to believe the One the very scriptures spoke about, the Son of God whom the Father sent! John 5: 37-40) In like manner, most in our world would be guilty of “knowing God but failing to glorify Him or give thanks to Him as God” (Romans 1:21). In their unrighteousness they suppress the Truth of Him (1:19-21). God has made it “plain” even in what we are seeing on Thanksgiving Day! They may not all be seeking to acknowledge their Creator, but they are proving Him to be True in what they do.
It’s highly possible that many secular people feel pretty foolish at Thanksgiving. They have an impulse within them that just doesn’t fit their worldview, and in some ways they are, in a moment of honesty, “showing their cards”. Believers, however, should not be confused about this! We may boldly be thankful to the One True and Living God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who has given us these things and far more! He has lavished us with His Love, providing not only a beautiful, habitable planet, the love between people and families, but also eternal blessings that far outlive what we see around us! He who gives us food, rest, enjoyment, beauty, music and more, invites us to join Him in eternal relationship.
Thanksgiving then calls us to a higher task: The day serves as a reminder that our lives are to be lived out as lives of thanksgiving to God. We live to remind one another of who we are and what God has done. Having a day marked out for that is not wrong…it’s just not enough! We gather every Lord’s Day to concentrate our minds on the highest things, but that is also not enough. Every time believers gather is an opportunity to give thanks to our Lord, and every instance that an unbeliever joins us is another opportunity to draw others into what they were made for. Take those moments as additional gifts from God to point to the One who “giveth, and giveth, and giveth again”! (He Giveth More Grace, Annie J. Flint) “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)