Now What?

Thanksgiving is over. Now what? We rush into sales and shopping as if it is the reason for the season. Thanksgiving can’t end before Black Friday hones on in all those eager to get a deal. Wal-Mart’s sale started at 10pm Thanksgiving night I think. How quickly we forget why we are thankful and what the true meaning of Christmas is.

Thanksgiving originally started when the pilgrims who reached Plymouth were grateful for the bounty they received from the earth. I personally believe that they were thanking God for what He had given them. I also believed that they saw the Indians as a gift from God in helping them survive in the “New World”. How quickly they forgot the blessings the Indians were to them as history so honestly showed the treatment they received after colonization. How quickly we do the same as we rush to spend hours in lines to buy the latest and best before we can even end the day of thanks.

Anyway, for me, Thanksgiving and Christmas are intricately intertwined. When I spend November thinking about how blessed I am with all the things I have, I can’t help but think about God. I can’t be where I am without Him. I wouldn’t be who I am either. Giving thanks HAS to be tied to God. So, I look at Thanksgiving as a chance to be thankful for the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Now I am free. I am not bound by man, laws, or even myself. I will get to spend eternity with Him, and for that I am eternally thankful.

Take the rest of November and December to keep thanking God. Go out of your way to make sure that you acknowledge him over this holiday season. Pray a little longer. Worship a little harder. Focus more on how blessed you are and how thankful you are for those blessings. More importantly, focus on Jesus. Spend this Christmas season resting comfortably knowing that you have a savior who thought enough about you to subject Himself to earth just to sacrifice Himself so he could spend eternity with YOU. Help someone else to see themselves eternally saved. That reward will far outweigh any other gift you could give God, or that any person can give you.

Mistye Ruffin~

Merry Christmas!