Thursday, November 24, 2005

Give thanks for being able to give thanks!

We will sit down at a heavily-laden table (to my wife, all honor) and we will solemnly maintain that the God of heaven gave all this to us, and He did so because He wanted to bless us. This is simply outrageous. What kind of hubris would claim that the triune God who spoke countless galaxies into existence paid any attention whatever to how our turkey and potatoes got to our house? But this is not self-promotion. We do not claim that God gave us these things to celebrate with because we are somehow up there on His level. We have learned through Jesus that our God is the God who stoops. He became a man (this next Lord's Day is the first Sunday of Advent) and He partook of meals, just like we do. He celebrated annual feasts, just like we do. In partaking as He did, He sanctified all things, including the blessing of sitting down with family (along with honorary family members for the day) and eating the fullness that God supplies.
Thanks to God for His indescribable gift. It is the gift of Christ, given for sinful men, that enables us to give thanks as we ought for all the other gifts He gives us, down to the smallest holiday tangerines. We have already gone through several boxes.

A small thank you to Doug Wilson for this quote, and a huge thank you to God who teaches us through humble men and reminds us why we are truly thankful.

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