Get your running shoes on, everyone, because here we go.
The holiday race is beginning. We are about to start racing to stores, buying and prepping food, decorating and rearranging, adding to work schedules, hosting parties and more.
The race is already on here at Hosanna Lutheran Church. October was loaded with activities, several weddings, Vacation Bible School for the kids, special worship services to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Trunk or Treat and winter members returning. The pace is picking up even more every day. That’s kind of how life goes sometimes.
This time of year, I am torn between excitement and exhaustion. So much to do, celebrations at hand, holidays coming, family arriving, crazy busy schedules at the church and at home. The pace of life wears me out. Isn’t it nice that we have built into our yearly calendar a time to just stop… and sit… and eat… and talk to loved ones… and just experience the sensation and emotion of gratitude?
Thanksgiving is that moment when we all stop the race for a moment, even if only for a day. It’s a time to take inventory and count up our blessings, and we look around the dinner table at the faces and the lives with whom we share our lives. We give thanks.
You notice it’s not called Thanks Taking. It’s Thanks Giving. It’s a time for us to give our appreciation to the people for whom we are grateful. And we give prayers of appreciation to the Giver of all good gifts, our Lord, Maker and Redeemer. Psalm 118 says, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, His mercy endures forever.”
Imagine all God has given you—your life, people with whom to share it, skills, talents and opportunities to provide for your needs and for others. Most of all, He gives us New Life through Christ. He gives all for our sake. We only have received freely from His hand. So, it sure is appropriate that we take some time to intentionally stop the race for a moment—December will be here soon enough.
Let’s stop the race for a day or more and just Give Thanks to God. In fact, come join us on Nov. 22, at 6:30 p.m., here at Hosanna Lutheran Church, located at 9601 E. Brown Road, for a Thanksgiving Eve worship service. Then, enjoy a feast, and let the race roll on.