Some might consider Thanksgiving “the American family holiday.” It might even surpass Christmas as the occasion for which family members gather together in greatest numbers. Each year, we hear on the news that more people travel over Thanksgiving weekend than at any time during the year. And that travel often involves family members of multiple generations joining together at the home of their member for a traditional meal centering around roast turkey. Part of the tradition frequently includes starting the day with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, and then after the sumptuous early afternoon feast, watching an afternoon football game while eating cold turkey sandwiches, and then getting started on Christmas decorations in the house and Christmas shopping in the stores on “Black Friday.” And of course, throughout the day, everyone is taking turns helping out in the kitchen! Right?
But as the real meaning of Christmas is too often lost amid the commercialism and consumerism of our increasingly secular culture, so too is the real meaning of Thanksgiving too often lost amid the increasingly self-centered hedonistic and entertainment-oriented atmosphere of modern America. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the revival we all pray for could begin by Christians leading the way, putting the Lord back at the center of these two holiday events, both of which had their origins in celebrating what God has done for us? After all, the word thanksgiving has little meaning unless there is some conscious understanding of what it is for which we are thankful, and to whom our thankfulness is directed.