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This morning, I was reading the last chapters of John where the crucifixion of Jesus was described. The Lord had been arrested like a common criminal after Pilate yielded to the demands of an angry religious mob and nailed Jesus to a Cross. Jesus was mocked, beaten, and finally died telling those watching, “It is finished.” His suffering redefined why I am truly thankful today.
Solomon wrote about how to live our lives: “So I commend the enjoyment of life because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad” (Ecclesiastes 8:15). This sounds like what will happen later today at our Thanksgiving gatherings of family and friends.
If I were asked to pray over the Thanksgiving meal, I would mention thankfulness for each family member and friend present and the good life God has given to us. I would end my prayer by noting my greatest thankfulness, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In some seasons of life, the “eat and drink and be glad” part of Solomon’s admonition may not happen. What is always present and available for us to declare our thankfulness for the love of God that led Jesus to the Cross.
On the Cross, he gave Himself up for us to make a new life possible. That new life is a divinely appointed balance enjoying both the good things of this life and a remembrance of all that Jesus did to define us as His redeemed ones. The inclusion of both truths in our prayer of thanksgiving would be a complete prayer of thankfulness, one that covers all the bases of what makes this life truly good.
Garris Elkins
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