The first Thanksgiving Proclamation was issued by President George Washington in 1779. It began: “Whereas, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits . . .” Every year since 1779 our president has signed a proclamation setting aside the last Thursday in November which calls upon our citizens to offer gratitude to God for His manifold blessings.
Each of us has a different list of things for which we should be thankful. A Sunday School teacher asked her class to make such a list, and one little boy wrote down that he was thankful for his glasses. The teacher was impressed by that, for some children resent having to wear glasses. Here, obviously, was a young boy who was mature enough to appreciate what wearing glasses did for him.
“Johnny,” she said, “I see that you put your glasses down at the head of the list of things for which you are thankful. Is there any special reason?” He replied, “Yes ma’am, my glasses keep the boys from hitting me, and the girls from kissing me.” To a young boy this makes a lot of sense.
A Christian hymn encourages us to “Count our many blessings” and to “name them one by one.” If you haven’t tried that, I recommend it. When we name our blessings one by one we become conscious of just how many we have. This, in turn, encourages us to thank God for them.
Thanksgiving Day is definitely a good time to give thanks to our provident Creator. It is also a good time to thank the people who have touched our lives in constructive ways. How easy it is to develop the habit of taking for granted what others have done and still do to enrich our lives.
I am what I am as a result of God’s grace plus the investments that others have made in my life: my parents, my elementary and high school teachers, my teachers in college and seminary, and countless other special individuals as well. The truth is that each of us is a charity case. Though we could never repay in full the debts we owe, we can certainly make regular installments on them by serving the needs of others.
Tragically, thankfulness seems to be largely a lost art in today’s world. Warren Wiersbe illustrates this fact in his commentary on Colossians. He tells of a ministerial student in Evanston, Illinois who was part of a lifesaving squad. In 1860, a ship ran aground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Evanston, and Evan Spencer waded again and again into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers. In the process, Spencer’s health was permanently damaged. Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he had rescued ever thanked him.
In order for the attitude of gratitude to be genuine it must be expressed every day of the year, not just on Thanksgiving Day. As you count the ways that God has blessed your life, you should also take the time to focus on and thank the individuals who have made you the person you are. Whatever you have achieved, however large it may be, you would have achieved much less without the investments that others have made in your life.
Is there a person – a family member, a teacher, a friend, a neighbor, or someone else – who needs to hear you say, “Thank you for all of the ways you have touched my life”? If so, both you and that person will be blessed when you do so.
An eight-year-old boy in St. Paul, Minnesota wrote a letter to Judge Archie Gringold of that city: “Dear Your Honor. I thank you so much for letting my mom and dad adopt me. I’ll be nine soon, and I’m in the Cub Scouts. Here’s a picture of me. I’m also giving you four cents, because you deserve it.” Four cents wasn’t much, but it was possibly all the little fellow had.
Judge Gringold put the four pennies into a children’s fund. “It makes it all worthwhile,” he told the Chicago Daily News.
The Paper Pulpit 
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