THANKSGIVING MEDITATION

My wife and I belong to a Wednesday Worship Group that meets at 6:00 p.m. for a short meditative service. It is lay-led, run by us "amateurs". I did this short meditation at the service this Wednesday. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate Thanksgiving, so this is for all my friends and/or followers.

As we approach the actual holiday of Thanksgiving, it is a good time to take a self-inventory and examine in our lives the blessings for which we should be grateful. In this connection, I was perusing recently a book that belonged to my grandmother that came into my possession after her death in 1962, a book that I have enjoyed over these many years called “The Book of English Collects”, a collection from the Prayer Books of the Anglican Communion of England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, South Africa and the U.S.A. published originally in 1940. Most of these collects are old and refer to God with the pronouns “Thou” or “Thee”, which appeals to me, as it denotes a special intimate relationship with God. It is filled with inspiring prayers for almost any occasion or circumstance. I recently found one Thanksgiving Collect that appealed to me:

O, Most merciful Father, we humbly thank thee for all thy gifts
so freely bestowed upon us. For life and health and safety, for power
to work and leisure to rest, for all that is beautiful in creation and in
the lives of men (and women), we praise and magnify thy glorious
name. But above all we thank thee for our spiritual mercies in Christ
Jesus our Lord, for the means of peace and the hope of glory. Fill
our hearts with all joy and peace in believing, through Christ Jesus
our lord.
Amen.

And here on Sanibel, in the words of this collect of Thanksgiving, we have so many “gifts so freely bestowed upon us” in our lives, our friendships and our church. Almost every time I drive down Periwinkle (the main drag), I find myself thanking God that Beryl and I permanently moved here seven years ago this month. We had been coming down since 1974 and owned a condo since 1977, but we bought a lot in 2001 and built and moved into our current home the following year.

We all have our “thanks giving” list. Let’s go around the circle and see what “thanks giving” we can make. I’ll start it off:

I give thanks that I have been married to this wonderful woman who has put up with me for 56 years and is the mother of our four children and grandmother to six.

(A lot of people chimed in with their thanks giving. Feel free to add your own.)

Let me end with a Collect for Thanksgiving Day:

O Most Merciful Father, who hast blessed the labors of the
husbandmen in the returns of the fruit of the earth: We give thee
humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty, beseeching thee to
continue thy loving kindness to us, that our land may still yield
her increase, to thy glory and our comfort, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.