God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trump. (Psalm 4:7)
And a shout and a trumpet it was! With gratitude and celebration we all met in the Colorado home of my daughter and her husband for Thanksgiving. All of us. Everyone came together at their generous invitation. The table was filled with the traditional trimmings prepared by each of our willing hands. Seeing people I love serving and sharing with each other, and acknowledging God as the source of their blessings is truly a divine delight.
Thanksgiving Day is an American tradition - but giving thanks didn't begin in America. It is a common value and connecting point through religions, cultures and beliefs in all the world as well as the connecting point through the ages.
Consider these statements from diverse sources about giving thanks:
- "Abundance can be had simply by consciously receiving what has already been given." — Sufism
- “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” -G. K. Chesterton
- "Sharing and giving are the ways of God." — Native American Sauk
- "Truly Allah is bountiful towards the people, but most of them do not give thanks." - Quran
- "If you cannot be grateful for what you have received, then be thankful for what you have been spared." — Yiddish Proverb
- “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.” -Cicero
- “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein
And consider historically and culturally these gratitude celebrations:
- Sukkot is celebrated by Jews around the world. Families build huts where they eat and sometimes sleep for the seven days of celebration which includes special prayers and holiday meals. Wands of myrtle, willow and palms are shaken every day in every direction to honor the land's gifts. This yearly holiday celebrates the harvest and remembers the time of the Exodus when the Israelites occupied temporary shelters in the desert.
- A Chinese tradition celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is also called the Moon Festival as it coincides withe a full moon in the eighth lunar month. Giving thanks for the harvest and encouraging life giving sunlight are part of the ceremonies. It is also a favorite time for matchmaking as this time of year is associated with fertility.
- The Yam Festival is celebrated by the Ewe people of Ghana. As the first yams appear and the end of the rainy season occurs, the celebration begins. The festival is largely aimed at averting famine in the coming year and is marked by feasts, dances and parades.
What if in addition to annual celebrations we created daily devotions of gratitude? What if throughout the day we looked for God's hand and expressed our thanks to any who have reached out in any way? What if we retired each evening recording with thanks what we saw and felt from God and others? Truly the profoundest ideas are fleshed out in the small moments of every day.
Daily rituals form and shape who we are and how we think. The prayers, praises, gratitude texts, a thank you phone call, the kind note and the verbal appreciation are all manifestations of this principle of gratitude. Is it possible that daily private gratitude rituals and expressions would create happier families, stronger communities, even global change? If so this personal postive energy could move outward affecting all who come in contact with this new vibration; this energy could cause a climate change of our own souls that reverberated into the entire world in which we would eventually feel the temperature difference. I'm just naive enough to believe that is possible. I'm just simple enough to believe the glow and warmth of human gratitude can change the world.
"Being grateful all the time isn’t easy. But it’s when you least feel thankful that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you: perspective. Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest most powerful way to effect change in your life — this I know for sure." -Oprah Winfrey
