Category: Thanksgiving

The story of the following hymn speaks for itself. Draw your own comparisons to your own life and responses to your own struggles.

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Here’s what one account of the circumstances surrounding this hymn’s authorship says:

“Martin Rinkart was a pastor in the little city of Eisenberg [sic] in
Saxony during the Thirty Years’ War. This walled city was the goal of refugees
during that time. They came and ate all the food, and then there was starvation.
With the starvation came pestilence, until practically the whole population of
the city died. Martin Rinkart, the only pastor left in the city, had as many as
fifty funerals in one day. One evening after having conducted funerals all day,
he sank down exhausted, thinking that he could bear it no longer…”

Actually, Eilenberg was the town’s name, and it was sacked three times during Rinkart’s pastorate. One of those many funerals Rinkart held was for his own wife.

And yet, he wrote the words of this hymn as a response to the trials of the Thirty Years’ War in 1644, toward the end of active conflict.

Consider that as today’s turkey and dressing and the sauces and pies and trimmings wend their way slowly through your system, likely adding another five pounds’ weight by the end of the holidays…

Got troubles?

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Now, having read that, consider to whom (or, to Whom) you are grateful. Folks’ perspectives vary, but let me lend you mine for a bit here. Hang on through the end or miss the ride.

¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ²This is what the ancients were commended for.

³By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. ⁴By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him…. Hebrews 11:1-6

It does make a difference Who you are grateful to, and why.

⁷By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

⁸By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; ¹⁰for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. ¹¹By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. ¹²Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

¹³These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. ¹⁴For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. ¹⁵And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ¹⁸of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” ¹⁹concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. ²⁰By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. ²¹By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. ²²By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.

²³By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. ²⁴By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, ²⁶esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. ²⁷By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. ²⁹By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.

³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. ³¹By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace. ³²And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: ³³who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. ³⁵Women received their dead raised to life again.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. ³⁶Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. ³⁷They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— ³⁸of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. ³⁹And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, ⁴⁰God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

^12:1Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So, when you think yourself thankful, grateful for your many blessings, consider the “great cloud of witnesses” who have gone before us. Consider what they endured, and what rewards, what honors they earned. And consider how many of those blessings you enjoy today you owe to progenitors stretching back to the dawn of time who saw their duty and gave their allegiance to a Purpose, a “Providence” as our nation’s founders were often to say, greater than themselves.

You and I have not yet begun to be truly grateful.

N.B. This was a redaction and conflation of two Thanksgiving posts from years past.

Let’s see… why was it I missed seeing this when it aired in 1978? Oh, yeh. I was sick as a dog. My family was filling my lil house (everyone was there–three sisters, a brother and Mom n Dad), and… I got married that day. Didn’t have a Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving Day that year (but my aunt and uncle who also lived in KCMO hosted the rehearsal dinner at my grad school’s “President’s Mansion”–cos that was his everyday job, and for the wedding, well, his “$150 prayer” blessing our union during the service was just the ticket *heh* BTW, “$150 prayer” meant “short n sweet” :-)).

Bugs Bunny’s Thanksgiving Diet

Well, now I’ve seen the thing. 😉

But, to my Wonder Woman: I’m glad I had other things to do on Thanksgiving in 1978. I’ve been feasting off that day for 31 years, now.

Along about this time of year, I usually cite the story of Martin Rinkart, the town of Eilenburg, Saxony and the Thirty Years’ War, using Rinkart’s hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God” as the punch line.

It’s still a good story and a good illustration of how shallow our own gratitude for our many blessings is, but I’ll just let you read the linked post and then refer you to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, in the New Testament:

¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ²This is what the ancients were commended for.

³By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. ⁴By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him…. Hebrews 11:1-6

It does make a difference Who you are grateful to, and why.

Continue reading “You Think You’re Grateful?”

Yesterday was my first Thanksgiving post of the week. Just in case that slipped by you, I have a multitude of reasons to be thankful on November 24 every year, all tied up in the simple law of nature that states,

The uglier the man, the better the woman he ends up with.

Also stated as, “Beautiful women (also known as “gracious, kind, generous, thoughtful, etc., women”) are blind to ugly in their men.”

*heh*

So, yesterday was my first Thanksgiving post. Today I want to ask, Who are you thankful to? We all have blessings out our kiesters to be thankful for. Our society is overflowing with an abundance of good things, good circumstances, and even–despite their almost complete absence from the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind, Congress, etc.–a large number of “good” people. (Yeh, ask me about the scare quotes on that one.)

So, I ask you, to whom are you grateful for the many blessings in your life?

The humanist is grateful to himself. The new age mystic or wannabe is grateful to “the universe” or some other such concept. And so on. Some folks are grateful to god. Oh, you noticed the uncial “g”? That’s because some folks (including some who call themselves Christians and go to churches that call themselves Christian) are grateful to a god who is indistinguishable from themselves or from the nebulous concepts of some universal force of various different new (old) age pagans or the gods of Druidic or Norse or Greco-Roman religion for that matter.

So I ask again, to whom are you grateful for the blessings in your life? If you are not certain whence your blessings come, you have no real reason to give thanks, nor do you have anyone to express those meaningless thanks to, now do you?

I’ll expand at length later this week on the topic simply exposited below, but for now, let me offer Don Moen’s simple exhortation:

Give thanks with a grateful heart,
Give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son.

And now let the weak say, ‘I am strong’
Let the poor say, ‘I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us’
Give thanks

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While it’s easy to say I’m at least one of the most blessed men alive, I can never tell the story below with any eloquence. My hands still shake and yeh, I mist over a tad. Happy Anniversary to my Wonder Woman…

“The Water is Wide” is a longtime fav of mine (a guy named Roger McGuinn gives a credible performance here-warning: mp3). The tune was strong in me Oct 4-6, 1998, and glad I was for it… I didn’t sing the usual lyrics, though. I sang these (below), not because they are better poetry, but because my Wonder Woman was “sleeping” for those days, hooked up to a bunch of machines after three occurences of what the doctors later labeled “Sudden Cardiac Death” on Sunday October 4, 1998.

Yeh, not the best of poetry, “a poor thing but my own” as it were. Still, sharing the twenty-seventh anniversary of our wedding day on Thanksgiving Day this year (N.B. 2005) is nice-something bordering on the miraculous-and I always think these words and tune at this time of year… well, and other times of the year as well.

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