Thanksgiving yesterday was a good day. Spent most of the afternoon and evening with friends.
I’ve been thinking a bit about Thanksgiving and find it odd (though not necessarily bad, I guess) that people without a faith in God still celebrate Thanksgiving. Christmas, oddly enough, is easier to understand with all the secular hoopla that’s been built up around the holiday: gift giving, Santa Claus, Rudolph, Frosty, etc. One doesn’t have to believe in the divinity (or even the existence, though that’s really silly) of Jesus to enjoy getting and giving gifts to friends and family. But to whom exactly are heathens directing their gratitude at Thanksgiving? Friends and family again? It seems less reasonable to me somehow. And certainly if you believe the universe is a vast, uncaring mass of randomly sorted matter having feelings of gratitude to it are surely misplaced as well, are they not?
On the other hand, it isn’t necessarily bad. This cognizance of the need to be thankful to someone or something greater than ourselves (even if it is dissonant with professed beliefs and attitudes about the cosmos) is good and probably a reflection of what Paul mentions in Romans 2:14-15.
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
This unwilling recognition, this tacit admission may be (will be with the grace of God) the first step to acknowledging His Sovereignty.
Anyway, some thoughts on the day after my favorite holiday. I hope yours was as blessed as mine and may we all carry the proper spirit of humility and gratitude in the Christmas season which is hard upon us now.
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Listening to: Leo Kottke – Leo Kottke – 06 – Three Quarter North
via FoxyTunes
Neh 