Thankgiving Prep in October!

Thanksgiving Prep in October?

Bob Pittman

10/10/2024

How many of us were already preparing for Thanksgiving in October? The stores were getting us ready! The products were on the shelves. Pilgrims, pumpkins, orange, red, and brown colors were all over the place! The Autumnal Equinox has become the time of preparation for Thanksgiving. I set out a pumpkin lawn ornament and my wife, Nancy, said, “get out the Thanksgiving box. Let’s start decorating the house for Thanksgiving”. We have done this for over 35 years together. At first, I wasn’t into it. We didn’t do this in my family of origin. Holidays were just another day to us. I have come to appreciate these times of year and especially my beautiful wife’s way of preparing for Thanksgiving.

There is another Thanksgiving preparation we should consider. The preparation of our hearts. The word, “thanksgiving”, is made up of two different words. The first, “thanks” is the plural of “thank” which means to express gratitude for something or someone. The second, “giving” means to deliver to someone else. Together the oldest sense of the word “thanksgiving” was the giving of gratitude for or to another person or persons. I think we have lost this meaning, or at least modified it, to mean life’s circumstances and places. We express gratitude to an inanimate concept, not to a person or persons. 

We are very familiar with the stories of the first Thanksgiving, though some argue against its pilgrim origins. However, do we stop to consider the object of our own Thanksgiving practices today? What or who is the object of your Thanksgiving? Let’s focus first on the Creator of all that we are thankful for. And let’s pass that on to the people in our lives who have taught us, through their care and concern for us, how to be thankful people and how to pass that gratitude along to others. Thank you, God for your provision, care, love, and for Nancy. Thank you, Nancy, for teaching me how to be thankful throughout the year.