Last week’s Thanksgiving in North America goes back to 1621, when white settlers – who we now call the Pilgrim Fathers – gave thanks to God.
A year after fleeing religious persecution, they were celebrating their first harvest in what is now called New England, together with the Wampanoag people who had guided them through a severe winter.
Thanksgivings were later linked to safe journeys, military victories or good harvests.
But nowadays, with so many people living and working far from home, each fourth Thursday in November sees families eagerly reuniting over great distances.
Thanksgiving days are a great occasion, but gratitude is also a great habit to adopt for every day, to keep us appreciating all that life offers.
Our arrival and our survival both depend on other people, for life is too special to try all by ourselves.
Our being conceived and being born depend on our parents; and our early childhood is shaped by our families; before our teachers, peers and heroes all contribute to the people we become.
Then, as adults, we are free to build on their positive input, or to break free of any residual negatives they might leave with us.
Gratitude keeps our feet on the ground with humility to remind us that however much we achieve; we are no more important than anyone else, because God’s love plays no favourites.
As we appreciate his generosity, we discover how he trusts us to be part of his answer for other people in their dreams or their defeats, and even in their day-to-day.
Combining gratitude with humility also defuses any idea that the whole world must revolve around us or around our way of getting things done.
This combination helps us to recognise the value of other people, even if we disagree with their ideas or methods.
And as we keep remembering that God loves them as much as he loves us, we find a fresh bridge of respect to lift us above any suspicion or anger that can fester into communities divided by prejudice.
God also works to dissolve religious arrogance and suspicions that descend into the kind of persecution which forced the Pilgrim Fathers to leave all that they had known in England and take the risk of resettling across the Atlantic.
Yet despite that distance, they were still within God’s reach, otherwise we might never have had any Thanksgiving to celebrate.
Noel Mitaxa
On behalf of a church near you, inviting you to explore God’s love