“Rejoice in the Things to Come” (Thanksgiving Eve)

Scripture: Joel 2:21-27

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that most folks take for granted. It is a time to get together with family and friends, to eat far more than we really need to, and to watch parades and football games, usually “through” our eye lids! But a day to give thanks can never be taken lightly – it’s an incredible opportunity to consider and acknowledge the many ways we have been blessed in our life.
But these things, too, are generally taken for granted – personal freedom, home, family (regardless of how strong or damaged those ties may be), financial security, to right to worship as we choose, the right to choose our nation’s leaders, and the list can go on for quite some time. Do we ever actually list them? Are we sufficiently intentional in our thanks to the point that others understand our gratitude as well as the recipient of our gratefulness?
The prophet Joel did and was.

Read Joel 2:21-24

The prophet is reminding us of all that God has done for us, and that whether we live in difficult times or peaceful ones, we need to keep our thanksgiving in the proper perspective.

Joel talks primarily about food from the harvest. Some days, it is abundant beyond our greatest expectation, and at other times, it is nearly destroyed by insects and drought and disease, and becomes barely sufficient for our needs. But through it all, the Lord is with us and will provide.

And Joel is also telling us that as good and plentiful as life may be, as good and gracious as God may be, there are even better times coming – that the Day he has Promised will be filled with overflowing blessings and bounty for all who come to the Lord’s everlasting and never ending feast. Until that day, though, we have to live a life of thankfulness, regardless of the day – one that encompasses not only our own life, but one that serves and gives to those who we love, as well as those who we don’t know and care little for.

From a book by Dr. Richard Carlson:

I have learned that the best way to be of service is often very simple - it's those little, quiet, often unnoticed acts of kindness that I can choose on a daily basis - being supportive of a new endeavor by my spouse, or simply taking the time and energy to listen [to someone]. I know that I have a long way to go toward my goal of becoming a more selfless person. However, I also know that as I have attempted to integrate service into my life, I have felt better and better about the way I choose to live. There is an ancient saying: “Giving is its own reward.” It's really true. When you give, you also receive. In fact, what you receive is [in] direct proportional to what you give. As you give more freely of yourself in your own unique ways, you will experience more feelings of peace than you ever thought possible. Everyone wins, especially you.
-Richard Carlson, Ph.D., Make Service an Integral Part of Your Life, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and It's All Small Stuff (New York: Hyperion, 1997), 178-179.

I think that both Joel and Dr. Carlson are telling us that our thanksgiving is expressed and proven by those things that we do in our thankfulness. And most of them are simple, but important, acts – acts like Listening, Loving, Caring, Supporting, Sharing.

Read Joel 2:25-27

The apostles and the prophets both tell us that, in Christ, we will be filled to overflowing by his grace and his wonders and his blessings. And that all he desires in return are our praises and acknowledgement that he, and he alone, is God.

And whenever we reach out to others in our thankful nature, in gratitude for all that the Lord has given us, in faith for all that is coming to us, we offer praises to God.

When the Pilgrims managed to get through that first year in this land, they gave thanks. They didn’t slap each other on the back in congratulations to each other, they didn’t celebrate their accomplishments – they gave thanks to Almighty God who had carried them through some pretty dark days.

President George Washington proclaimed a day of thanksgiving – a day to offer praises to the Heavenly Father for his goodness in leading us through that terrible conflict we know as the Revolution.

President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863 – in the middle of our Civil War, offered these words in proclamation of this special day:
“No human counsel [has] devised nor [has] any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, [has] nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are [traveling] in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who [dwells] in the Heavens.”

Thanksgiving is not a day to just stuff ourselves with the sacrificial turkey and to watch TV football games and parades ad nausium – it is a day to give true and honest thanks to our Savior who has already given great things to us, and has promised us even greater things to come.

Be truly thankful for all you have received in this life, and be sure to give something of yourself to someone else.