Word for Word 12/3/25

Thanksgiving has often struck me as an odd holiday. I don’t mean that it’s odd that we gather with family and overeat - Americans do that on Christmas and the 4th of July, too. It’s odd that the American spirit has not found a way to commercialize this holiday.

Christmas is a multi-billion dollar bonanza, the 4th of July is a booming spectacle of spending, and even Easter now requires a full shopping basket of candy eggs and bunny decorations. But somehow only the supermarket has found a way to capitalize on Thanksgiving.

Why is this, I have wondered? Is it because Americans are universally a thankful, content people? Hardly! We have our share of grumpy, greedy people, longing for the next something. Or are we unthankful because we think that our own hard work is the reason for our blessings? We would pat ourselves on the back if only society wouldn’t think of us as completely self-centered.

The last reason might be the closest to the truth. To what or to whom do we give thanks? Why should we even be thankful? And for what are we thankful? Sure, I am thankful for a house and good food. But the things that make life the most wonderful are not things that can be bought at a store. Family, love, acceptance, kindness - these virtues don’t grow in the ground, but are immaterial and spiritual. You can’t eat or drink these virtues, but would you want to try to live without them?

When I think of these virtues, I am reminded that the things I am most thankful for do not spring from the material world, but from the spiritual one. On the throne of that world is a God Who loved me and you so much that He was willing to send His only Son, Jesus, into this world to die for our sins, so that we through faith could have everlasting life.

The reason we can’t commercialize Thanksgiving is that its very nature is a reminder of God’s greatness and an invitation to walk closer to Him today than yesterday. My prayer is that this Thanksgiving season finds you seeking to take another step closer to God through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Matthew Majewski
Center Baptist Church, rural Lansing