Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

           In the US we celebrate on a special day which has been designated as Thanksgiving.  On this day colonial Americans and Native Americans got together for a time of feasting and thanksgiving to God who was responsible for making for the bountiful harvest possible.  This time of giving thanks was later made an official holiday in the USA.

           My family always celebrated this holiday.  I remember so distinctly those thanksgiving weekends when the whole family would gather at mom and dad’s place.  If it was not snowing we would go quail hunting and if it was snowing or had snowed the day or two before, we would go rabbit hunting.  I think the best part of rabbit hunting was walking through the snow covered fields taking in all the beauty that God had provided by the pure white covering he had painted over all the areas that our eyes could take in.  For as far as we could see observing those Kansas rolling pastures and fields that had been harvested earlier in the fall.

            We took this Kansas utopia for granted as though those hunts on Thanksgiving Day would go on forever.  In the earlier days dad would hunt with us but in the years that followed he would only go as far as the barn yard and then he would disappear in the distance as we got farther and farther away.  Those were wonderful times, but of course they did not last.  Like a vapor those times of hunting have disappeared.  Dad and mom are both gone.  He farm has been divided into three different tracts of land with three different owners.  The smokehouse, chicken house and all the pigeon pens are gone.

            As I look back on those Thanksgiving days, I would like to say to all of you out there who are meeting together at your mom and dad’s house, don’t take these times for granted.  Hug your mom and dad and tell them how much you love them.  If you are now “grandpa and grandma” and the married children and your grandchildren are gathered around your table, be sure that you include Christ our blessed savior in your festivities.