Thankful For or To?
Last night I had the privilege of leading and preaching at a Thanksgiving eve service at Zion Lutheran Church, Baker, WV. It was the first time in many years this church has had a Thanksgiving service. This is the message I shared with them: The text is John 6:25-35. Some of us have memories of wonderful family gatherings at Thanksgiving, like you would see in a Norman Rockwell picture. Among the memories, may be that of going around the table with everyone saying what they are thankful for. It’s a lovely tradition. Those are not among my memories of Thanksgiving growing up, however. My family was not religious and didn’t go to church. It wasn’t even much of a special day when I was a child, except that we ate different food. As we gather around our tables tomorrow, what are we looking forward to? What makes Thanksgiving special for us? Is it for the special food that we so rarely have—pumpkin pie, turkey, homema...
