Thanksgiving

Leviticus 7:12-13 NIV

“If he offers it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering he is to offer cakes of bread made without yeast and mixed with oil, and cakes of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil.  Along with his fellowship offering of thanksgiving he is to present an offering with cakes of bread made with yeast.”

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.  An American holiday established by Abraham Lincoln.  Or is it?

The Thanksgiving meal was first prepared by the Pilgrims and Native Americans one year after the Mayflower landed.  Or was it?

Quite possibly Thanksgiving was patterned after God’s law in Leviticus to the people of Israel.  Maybe those first settlers to the New World knew a thing or two about God’s Word.  Maybe they understood better than we understand today about the importance of offering a thank offering to the Lord.

Those pilgrims had much to be disappointed about.  Their trip across the Atlantic had been treacherous.  The first year they buried too many of their family and friends.  Life was hard.  But they did not curse God.  They did not write about how unfair and unjust life was.

Instead, they offered a meal of thanksgiving to the Lord.  They counted their blessings.  Their cup wasn’t just half full; it was very half full and worth rejoicing over.

Today and tomorrow as you begin to prepare your Thanksgiving dinner be like the pilgrims.  Offer your labor of the meal as a thank offering to the Lord.  God commanded the thank offering cakes be “well-kneaded.”  As we work with the food for our meal, let us whisper thanks to the Lord.

When we are together with family and friends around a table full of food offered to the Lord as thanks we are offering a fellowship offering.  Make tomorrow a sacred day.  Set aside your worries, your cares, you grudge against Uncle Bill, and fellowship with each other as unto the Lord.  Share your thanksgiving praises with each other.  Rejoice with each other because the Lord is good!