Thank God · 27 November 2014
Praying Hands by Albrecht Dürer
This work is in the public domain.
Thanksgiving is a time of time of giving thanks for all the blessings we have in our lives. But without God, who do we thank?
I know that Thanksgiving is a national holiday for us to remember our heritage as Americans and give thanks to our forefathers for their foresight in creating this great nation. We ought to thank veterans and active duty military men and women for keeping us safe from enemies, both foreign and domestic. We ought to thank first responders for being diligent and keeping our hearth and homes safe. And we ought to thank our family and friends just for being our family and friends.
But what about thanking God? We ought to thank Him for those same people, for life, and for so much more.
I recently finished reading a book called God’s Not Dead, by Rice Broocks, which gives a logical explanation for the existence of God. Everybody should read the book with an open mind and see where reason actually leads where God is concerned. (If you have read my blog for long, you know that I do not need to be convinced that God is surely alive and well, but still, the book raises a bunch of questions for people who consider themselves to be pure, logical thinkers. But reader beware: Having an open mind, even if it is a skeptical one, can be dangerous. You never know what might change it.)
At any rate, Thanksgiving got me to thinking about the book again. Like I already said, we need to thank our forefathers, military men and women, first responders, friends, and family. But even if we do not want to thank any of them, even if we do not have a great view of history or people who we might want to thank, we still ought to thank God.
Some would say that if they do not have any of those special people in their lives, they might not have much to be thankful for. Others would argue that they cannot thank a God who they do not believe in. To those groups of people, I would ask, “Then, why do you celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place?” After all, if there are no people in our lives we want to thank and we do not thank God, then who are we thanking?
It is a simple question that I am sure does not have a simple answer for the non-believer. (Then again, I suppose that if we do not have any people in our lives to be thankful for, we might not have many things we call blessings. In that case, we really do not have much need for Thanksgiving.)
Some people think we are becoming a godless nation, but I will not believe that until a Nero rules again. Or at least until Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving are no longer national holy days. Of course, I will continue to believe that God is not dead. And appropriately, I will continue to thank Him. Each Thanksgiving and indeed, each day.
This Thanksgiving, I say, “Thank you,” to our forefathers, to our veterans and active duty military personnel, to our first responders, and to our family and friends. Thank you for all you do and all you are. More importantly, I want to thank God for all those people and for all our blessings.
Thank you, God. Today and every day.
© 2014 Michael T. Miyoshi
| Share on facebook | Tweet |
|
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.
| They Used to Dance | Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? |