When the psalmist in Psalm 8 writes about our place in creation, “what are human beings that You are mindful of them, mortals that You care for them? Yet You have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honour” there is a response that wells up in us. Doesn’t it lead us to become filled with awe? This creation is where we see the moon and the stars, and also the grandeur of the northern lights and the lovely bright colours of the trees during fall. This is when we can’t NOT be moved to a total stance of gratitude towards God.

Maybe Thanksgiving is not all about being supposed to bring thanks to God, but rather about being moved toward gratefulness.

This seems to be a time of deep awareness the God is the provider of so much. We needn’t be in a state of constant craving for more and more, we can fully rely on the Lord taking care of us. We are invited to be content.

How odd is it that the American Thanksgiving lies right beside Black Friday at the end of November? The turkey meal is barely swallowed, let alone digested, when folks miss out on the overwhelming sense of awe and gratitude as the page through the flyers to see what can be bought for Christmas. Run, run, run it becomes to get hold of the best deals for sale.

Yet, when we are stunned by the awe-some-ness of God, by God’s splendour and majesty, we are enabled to rest in the Lord and creator as our constant and loving provider at all times. Then we are able to rest in God’s care through thick and thin, because God loves us.

Heinrich Grosskopf
Dayspring Presbyterian Church, Edmonton