Overshadowing Thanksgiving

364 days before Christmas: We are planning what we want to do next year.

11 months before Christmas: We still have Christmas décor up, just a little longer.

10 months before Christmas: There’s still snow, so we don’t feel bad about still listening to Christmas music.

7 months before Christmas: It's Mother’s Day, when we decide what we want to get Mom for Christmas.

5 months before Christmas: Christmas in July, because we couldn’t wait a whole year.

2 months before Christmas: Fall weather strikes, and we think about Christmas because it’s cold and stores are selling trees.

1 month before Christmas: Thanksgiving, when we decide what we want to do for Christmas dinner.

1 month before Christmas: Black Friday, when we decorate for Christmas and every area of life becomes Christmasy.

Christmas Day! The day of the highest joy, because I get a lot of gifts!

Wait a minute…. 

Does joy come from getting? Temporary happiness can, but honestly, I always get the “Christmas blues” around 11 o’clock Christmas day. The presents are opened and the high of receiving gifts has worn off.

We tout Christmas as the season of giving, love, sacrifice, joy, peace, fill in the word that exudes happiness to you. But, the fact is, it’s not. The Christmas season, even in Christian circles, is so full of getting that it’s become unnatural to leave a Christmas gathering of any kind without at least a small gift of candy wrapped in cellophane and red ribbons. In all honesty, we pretend to be filled with goodwill for men, because we want other people to have goodwill toward me and give me something. That’s not a spirit of giving, that’s a spirit of self-love and greed. Ouch.

I believe that there is a reason that Thanksgiving is swallowed up by Halloween on one side and Christmas on the other. Other holidays tend to focus on getting and taking and gifts.

2 months before Thanksgiving: Labor Day, when we take the day off for ourselves.

1 month before Thanksgiving: Halloween, when we take candy and treats from neighbors.

1 day after Thanksgiving: Black Friday, when we take other people’s lives to get the best deals.

1 month after Thanksgiving: Christmas, when we take presents and food of every kind.

Thanksgiving is the only holiday that we celebrate that involves giving, and only giving.

In fact, the name itself is something wholly unlike our human tendencies: Giving is completely opposed to our innate greed, and thanks is an intangible gift to give. You don’t go to the store to buy it. You can’t wrap it in a pretty box or pack a bunch of little ones in a gift basket. You don’t pay money for it, although it does cost you something to give it.

What does it cost?

It costs me pride.

To say thank you is to say that I didn’t deserve what was done for me.

To say thank you is to say that I acknowledge the sacrifice of another.

To say thank you is to be humbled in the face of the giver.

To say thank you is to say that I expect no additional gifts.

To say thank you is to say that the giver is better than I, more generous than I, more worthy than I.

When’s the last time you said a thank you like that? Try it this year. Stay tuned this week for "The Seven Days of Thanksgiving", starting tomorrow and going on daily until Thanksgiving!

Thanks be to God!

-Abby