Today we celebrate and give thanks for all God has done for us. As we gather around the table and feast upon the generous provisions, I will say a prayer of thanks for you, my friends. You have been a great source of encouragement and blessing to me this past year. You have read my stumbling words and managed to make sense of what my heart was trying to say. We have shared our hurts with one another and pointed each other to the One who heals. So thank you.

I’m including a portion of Abraham Lincoln’s speech where he declared the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. Perhaps, consider reading it to your children (those of age to understand). In the full speech, he pointed out how God had continued to bless this country despite the Civil War. It gives one a lot to think about and reflect on this Thanksgiving.

“To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God….No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

For the rest of the speech, click here.

On this Thanksgiving, may we all reflect with gratitude on the numerous blessings He has provided-all because of Grace.

Happy Thanksgiving!