I love Thanksgiving and I appreciate the spirit of gratitude that is its focus. We all have something to be thankful for and most of us have A LOT for which to give thanks. I’m glad we do it on this day. I’m glad to have been included at someone’s table and I am deeply grateful to God for every blessing He has poured into our lives, even the ones we didn’t at first recognize as blessings. I’m not sure how to say what’s coming next though….
Seeing all the pictures of food on tables and plates on social media today has affected me in a way it hasn’t to this degree before. It screams abundance more loudly than I can explain. It calls to mind the faces of people I have met in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and South America… people who couldn’t begin to imagine that kind of abundance. Some of them hadn’t eaten for days and many didn’t know when they would eat again. I’ve seen people rejoice over a bag of rice and cooking oil, a granola bar, or just a simple cup of water. I’ve seen some walk away and known they might not survive without a miracle. That has changed my eyes, and my heart. We have so much, so much that our “problems” are more “sophisticated.” I’m not making fun of that or saying that people shouldn’t share their pictures of food. I’ve done it too. But I process verbally, and often through writing, so here is a window into my thoughts:
To whom much is given, much is required. I’ve been given much; am I giving much to others who aren’t as privileged? I’m challenged by who and what I have seen. It would be a terrible thing NOT to have been changed by these experiences. Nobody chooses their birthplace or what family or social strata they are born into… there are some starting points in life that rarely lead to the type of abundance that I see here. And yet, God loves us all the same. We are worth the same to Him, rich and poor, light and dark skin, male and female… so many differences and yet we are the same in value to Him. And He has called us to love. Love each other, love the “us,” love the “them.” Am I loving the way He wants me to? Am I loving enough? As I eat my Thanksgiving meal and reflect on gratitude, am I also asking Him to show me how to share my abundance with those who have not? Am I spending too much time and prayer on problems that just aren’t that important because I don’t have to spend my time and prayer on how to feed my child or myself? Could I spend some of my time, my prayer, and maybe even my money on sufficiency (not even abundance) for people I may never even meet but who are just as valuable to my Father as I? If I quiet my mind and focus on that, how will it change me? How could it change them? God help me in my gratitude for abundance to be sensitive to how you want me to use it.