Happy Thanksgiving Day! Can we talk briefly? Will you think with me?
On Thanksgiving, we are often thankful for those things that separate us from others — things that identify us as special or extra blessed in comparison to the rest of humanity. When we are thankful for health, freedom, our nation, or abundant physical blessings, we stand separated from most of the world where such blessings are often lacking. Such a limited perspective can make our gratitude quite selfish.
On this Thanksgiving Day, can we be thankful through the eyes of the world? Can we learn spiritual gratitude? Can we find thankfulness, not in abundance but in the simplicity of the life we share in common with the rest of the people of earth? One opposite of gratitude is pride–let this be a day for seeing God, seeing ourselves, and seeing our world!