Thanksgiving is a time heavy with tradition. This holiday goes back to the 1600s, so there has been a lot of time to establish the workings of the 4th Thursday of every November. Most people I know love Thanksgiving. Is it the long weekend? The food? Seeing family? The next day shopping? Sports? We all have our reasons and we want the day to go a certain way. We have a special dish we are looking forward to or we just love going back to Grandma’s house. There is such a familiarity that we almost feel it physically . . .in our very cells . . .we eat, we talk, we laugh, perhaps we cry. We remember and we give thanks.

I can’t help but think of the table. It really is the star of this holiday, after all. We lay all our offerings on it with the colors and the aromas mixing into a perfect fall mosaic. Yellows, oranges and greens with a hint of cranberry. Savory and sweet. Laughter and tears. We catch up with people we don’t see enough and talk about how we should get together more often. We take note of the empty spots and smile at the new faces. The table changes, the faces change, but the point is always the same. What are we thankful for?

If you have read some of my past articles you know I love the Puritans. Well, at least I love their prayer books. They have a way of cutting past all the noise and getting to the heart of the matter, which is in fact, our hearts. Where are we with God? You can thank your local Puritan for the concept of Thanksgiving Day in America. These pious people, fleeing religious persecution, came to the shores of the New World seeking a different way of life.

Have you ever ran from something just to find yourself in a worse place? Those first months and years for them were very rough. You think you’ve had a bad year? Imagine a meager diet, sickness and aching loneliness in a foreign land. They were at the mercy of the elements and as the story goes, surely would have all died, if it had not been for the help of the people living there. The Native Americans (the Wapanoug’s, to be exact) knew the land and the food, they knew what plants to use for medicine, they knew how to survive. And like most new frontiers, the shores of America boasts a complicated and violent history. By the time we get to the first Thanksgiving those who would sit down at the table have been through the wringer.

Have you had a hard week? A hard month? A hard year?

Do you want to have a party and celebrate all you have to be thankful for?

Probably not.

If I had been a surviving Pilgrim, I might naturally be bitter and ungrateful. I think when they announced; “we are going to have a big dinner to celebrate the harvest,” I might have asked: are there any other party themes like, perhaps, a pity party? Maybe I’ll go to that one instead. I’ve been cold, hungry, sick, have left my home and have lost family . . . and the list goes on.

Those early wayfarers, however, had already built in a natural rhythm to their worship. They didn’t necessarily wait for something good to happen to be thankful. They regularly practiced the art or discipline of gratitude.

The Puritans and many of our church fathers, often spent time leading up to a celebration in prayer and fasting. They were seeking God’s voice and will in their lives. The ebb and flow of their spiritual lives allowed for want and abundance. They learned to seek God in both spaces.

Perhaps this year’s pre-set Thanksgiving Day comes at the perfect time for you; you have so much to be thankful for—when it’s your turn around the table to give a blessing in your life, you will have a hard time picking just one. Or perhaps it’s been a year of want and struggle and the homemade whipped cream on your pumpkin pie is the best thing you’ve got going.

Maybe you struggle with what to bring to the table, not only in a casserole dish, but also in a more real way. Sometimes we look around at the laden table and feel that our offering, our very lives in fact, are left wanting. You were asked to bring the relish tray and you couldn’t even manage to pull that off or you experimented with a dairy-free, gluten-free dessert and nobody seems all that interested in a slice. What’s particularly noteworthy of Thanksgiving is the variety of concoctions sitting next to each other on the same sideboard. Just like the souls around the table, we are all made up of different experiences and preferences, that can at their best, complement each other, and at their worst, clash. All things are possible on Thanksgiving Day.

In a place of old traditions, there is still room for new ones. As generations past are remembered, we look forward to the future. Hope always has a place, especially before you take your first bite of the vegan turkey. Hmmm . . .vegan turkey? What we bring to the table matters, even if it is only the napkins. We each make our own contribution in each others’ lives all year long, and then we join together to share our struggles and triumphs.

Someone recently said to me, there is always room at God’s table. We can squeeze in one more, there’s ample food for everyone. The pilgrims could certainly attest to near starvation, but spiritually the Lord always provides. The ram in the bush, the loaves and fishes, the jars of oil . . . story after story in the Bible illustrates God’s provision, even in lean times for both body and soul. You can turn to Him with your dish of hurt and pain and loneliness, of wandering and wanting, and He will welcome you and even more so, give you beauty for ashes.

Isaiah 61:3

“…to give unto them beauty for ashes,

the oil of joy for mourning,

the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness..”

In many ways our greatest worship comes out of the lean times. When we praise the Lord, despite what feels like unanswered prayers, we are saying He is still good (even though we wish things were different). We can still put forth praise because we know He has a plan for our lives that will ultimately bring us to the promised land—heaven with our Saviour—even if we happen to be traveling through a hard terrain this Thanksgiving. Sometimes we walk through deserts and climb rocky paths, but we are always in His hands. Therefore, we can give thanks, we can use our lives as a witness to God’s presence in our journeys, as we sojourn towards life eternal. We can encourage other spiritual pilgrims along the way. This holiday is a day set aside for praise and gratitude, like a guidepost in the year, on this day we give thanks.

On the other hand, when things are going really well for us, it can be tempting to think that we did this. It’s hard work and determination that got me here . . .my own brains or brawn . . .and while that plays a role certainly, and we should feel a sense of accomplishment and joy over our successes, we have to be careful not to become prideful. James 1:17 tells us that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. And yet, if all the glory goes to God, we can rid ourselves of some of these emotional and spiritual pitfalls, because it’s all about Him anyway.

Thankfulness, in and out of season, is a hallmark of our Christian faith. We are taught to give thanks in everything, always! What a request! It is only possible with Christ, in the light of eternity. So, bring your dish to the table, bring your stories of what God has done for you this year and in the past. We all have a common story that seats us at the same table of thanksgiving: the story of a risen Saviour who loved us so much He gave “his life a ransom for many”, so that all the hurts and tears of this life will one day fade. We can be thankful in the bounty of such a harvest like the first Pilgrims, like so many struggling Christians throughout history who could find a thankful heart even in war and famine. If we have life, we have hope, and if we have whipped-cream pumpkin pie, we have joy, if only for a moment (even if it’s dairy-free).