As the final leaves of autumn fall, we prepare to gather around tables laden with all the trappings of the feast: moist turkey, warm gravy, creamy mashed potatoes, and tart cranberry sauce. We settle into familiar family festivities – recalling the blessings of the past year, fellowshipping around the table, and playing board games in the family room or football in the backyard.
The Thanksgiving feast is an annual reminder of our blessed abundance. It is the perfect time to think about how we might lavishly share what we have with those we love. Whether we are hosting Thanksgiving this year or not, how can we abundantly bless the ones with whom we gather? What generosity of time, encouragement, or help can we give? Inviting others to share in our bountiful gifts is the true spirit of Thanksgiving: giving thanks and sharing thanks. There is more than enough to go around.
Sharing Thanks
The abundant life has become a modern catchphrase for personal satisfaction. But this kind of abundant life is shallow and inward focused. The abundant life that God promises is a life of abundant thanksgiving, streams of gratitude filling up and spilling outward to those around us. My abundance is not about me, it is about what God has done for me. The abundant life is not an abundance of receiving, but an abundance of giving: giving to God by giving to others.
Ultimately, our gratitude for all of God’s earthly blessings points to the greatest blessing we could ever receive: the undeserved gift of eternal life through our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has freely paid for all our sins with His precious blood, a debt we could never pay ourselves. When we fully understand what God has done for us through Christ, we stand amazed in His presence, bursting with the thankfulness that salvation brings. We know our sin, and we know our Savior. He has given us a new heart and drawn us into relationship with our Heavenly Father. He is the perfect object of our thankfulness and praise. We cannot help but share this joy.
At Horizon we are thankful for you, our vendors and clients. Thank you for another year of working together to make beautiful landscapes in northern New Jersey. May the God of abundance abundantly bless you this Thanksgiving.
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21