One of the New York Rabbis pointed out that there are only four kinds of prayer:  Gimmie, Uh-oh, Thanks, and Wow.  Note that Thanks is pretty far down the list.  We have so much to be thankful for.  We have an overabundance of stuff.  We share the the freedoms won and protected for us by others.  We are part of a wild, often crazy, family.  As we help ourselves to the second plate of turkey and dressing, do we pause for a moment and think not of the gifts, but the Giver?

I’ve mentioned to several groups that one of the New York City Rabbis pointed out that there really are only four types of prayer: Gimmie, Uh-uh, Thanks and Wow. That pretty well covers the field, and you notice that thanksgiving falls pretty far down the list. I suppose we should begin by admitting that we are nowhere near as thankful as we should be, but we know that. Through the prophet Hosea, God had to remind the people of Israel that it was He who gave them the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on them silver and goal—which they turned around and offered to an idol.   We probably don’t do a whole lot better than that ourselves. One pastor that we knew for a whole string of Sundays talked about the members of the congregation who did not attend worship services. Finally my daughter said “Why is he fussing at us, we’re here?” We know we do not remember to say thanks as we should, but we are here, and there is so much that we are truly thankful for.

Thankfulness begins with remembering. In the Old Testament lesson, Moses called upon the Children of Israel to remember the time that God led them through the wilderness. The Scriptures tell us that during that forty years they did a great deal of complaining, but later, looking back on those times they remembered the closeness that they felt to God. I remember when Susan and I were first married. We didn’t make a great deal of money. Once we were down to less than fifteen dollars in the bank, but we worked together, and we ate troop issue canned tuna fish that my brother, an Air Force officer gave us. Now we can look back on those days and the closeness that we felt with one another, and be thankful to God that He overlooked all of the silly mistakes we made as we were learning to grow up and grow together. When the Children of Israel were hungry God fed them. He provided mannah—literally “what is it?” Their clothes didn’t wear out. Their feet didn’t swell, even though they traversed some pretty rugged land. And at the end of the journey there was a promised land.   Remember, Moses admonished them, and Bless the Lord.

We have so much to be thankful for. And when we think about thankfulness, don’t we immediately start with material things? We give thanks that we have food to eat and a bed to sleep in. No, it is even more than that. To some extent we have an overabundance of stuff. Sometimes we have to stop, grit our teeth, and discard some of the stuff that we have accumulated because we are running out of room to store it. My wife points out that the books that I accumulate take up an inordinate amount of space. Yes, we should be thankful for the stuff that we have—and accept it as a gift of God. As Moses admonished, for all the stuff that we have, we should bless the Lord.

But there is more to life than stuff. From the days of George Washington down to the present President, we are reminded to give thanks for the blessings that God has showered on this land of ours. My heart breaks for those in the Ukraine and in the Middle East who have been forced to leave everything behind and flee for safety. Some of our young men and women have been called upon to put their lives on the line for our security, but the rest of us have dwelt in incredible safety, at least from war. Those young men and women shield us and permit us to enjoy the freedoms which we hold so dear. We have the right to gather for worship as we choose, to pick the newspaper or television channel that we like, to gather with others to support one or the other political candidate, and we don’t have to agree with each other. Yes, there is a remote chance that we might be subjected to terrorism, but I’ve noticed that most terrorist acts committed on our shores are committed by our own citizens. For this good land, we should bless the Lord.

Closer to home, we should give thanks for the families of which we are a part. We should give thanks for husbands and wives who have taken the marriage vows seriously and stood by us for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, who have loved and cherished us. My wife has said that she has never contemplated divorce, although she has considered homicide on several occasions. And we are thankful for our children. It is amazing to watch them through the years grow and develop, and we are thankful for the grandchildren with which they have presented us. Yes, they have worried us from time to time, and from time to time we have been disappointed with some of the things that they have done, but I have a suspicion they feel the same about their mother and myself. We also can be thankful for our parents. My father was bound and determined that his sons would go to college, and supported us all the way through our education. And there were aunts, who had no compunction about correcting me when I was little, and uncles, and cousins. Yes, each one of us should Bless the Lord for the wild, crazy family into which He has placed us.

There are so very many things for which we should be thankful, but are we only looking at the pennies nestled in the hand? In our contemplation of thanksgiving are we so caught up in the gifts that we overlook the Giver? On a day noted for overindulgence in food and concentration on a football game, is there time to pause and remember. The God who lies behind all of the gifts is the one who sent His own Son into this world to take upon himself human flesh. While we load our plates with a second helping of turkey and dressing—our Lord contemplates nail holes in hands and feet—which are the marks of the grace which he has shared with us. The greatest gift of all is that God Himself has established a relationship with us through Jesus Christ our Lord. As He said to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai in the midst of their wilderness wandering, “I will be your God and you will be my people,” He says the same to us. “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

Thankfulness is not simply a matter of words. Thankfulness is a lifestyle. It encompasses what we do with the stuff that we have received, and how we use it. It is the responsible way in which we use the freedoms that have been won and preserved for us. It is the care, love, and sharing that takes place within the family as we care for one another. And it is the life that we live as the children of our God—that is what God desires of us.

Yes, we are thankful for the stuff that God has piled upon us in superabundance. We are thankful for the costly freedoms that we enjoy. We are thankful for the family whose lives we share. And we are most deeply and humbly grateful to the God who is the author of all of these gifts, the God who has suffered and died that we might live, the God who is not ashamed to call us His own. For this bless we the Lord, not just for one day, but throughout and with our lives.