Thanksgiving is for all.
What does all mean in Greek, and
Hebrew? All would be the answer.
One way to experience the all of
thanksgiving is the traditional way of sharing a great meal with friends and
family to remember our gratefulness. We do that well here in the USA for the
most part.
I was reminded today that a
thanksgiving feast was offered as early as in the Old Testament. Today, as
Christians, or Jews, or others who celebrate the graciousness of God, let us
remember the all. We can easily pick and choose whom we celebrate our feast
with and leave out some people for various reasons that we are comfortable
with.
Psalm 100 was written as a song
to be sung along the way to celebrate a feast, in the court of the gentiles, in
Solomon’s Temple. Israelite’s were to bring their families, and the people of
the surrounding nations that they would interface with to experience the
graciousness of the Living God. That
was always God’s desire
for the Israelite’s. Their life, and their relationship with the one
True God, was to be a lighthouse to the rest of the nations of the world. A
Gracious and Loving God that was calling them into relationship, just as he did
the Israelite’s.
Right now, I am studying my way through
the beatitudes. The first four seem to reflect our relationship to God, and the
next four concern themselves with our relationship with one another. Right
after this we are presented with the proclamation that we are light and salt to
the world. We can spin our version of the light and salt any way we chose, but,
let us not do as the Israelite’s.
He asks us to Live differently, Love differently, and Forgive differently. He asks us to be a lighted pathway for the
spiritually blind world to see the Living and True God. He asks us to be salt
to stop the spiritually dead from decaying in a life void of the Power of God.
I believe the beatitudes properly
understood will help us live the life God desires. Lives that show forth the
graciousness of the One True God; that is the standard for our lives. So let’s be a people that will open our houses,
and our relationships, and finally our hearts, to the people just outside of
our comfort zone. They are the all in the Thanksgiving is for all.
Jim Mussetter
11-28-18
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