Not long ago two of my co-workers began talking about the holidays, and as one was relatively new to the shop, they were trying to get a feel for how we tend to celebrate them.  As perhaps a way to avoid the conversation, the other answered that they were Jewish.  To this the new co-worker replied, “So you’re one of the chosen.”  What was really profound, though, was the reply:  “Chosen for what?”

You see, I have worked with this gentleman for several years and have had solid conversations with him, but while he is Jewish in nationality, he is an atheist when it comes to religion.  So, when he asked, “Chosen for what,” what he was really saying was that without God in his life, certain things are irrelevant.

Think about it.  In the Middle East, Israel’s neighbors have not chosen them.  In the United Nations they have few, if any, friends.  At one time, America was their greatest ally, but that allegiance is not as solid as it once was.  Hence, without God and his promises, they are just an ancient people, no different from anyone else. The truth is that Thanksgiving Day, and its observance, is the same:  Without God in your life, to whom can you be thankful to?

What I am driving at is that Thanksgiving Day is a religious national holiday.  Though even pagan religions hold similar celebrations in honor of their gods or goddesses in acknowledgment of man’s insignificance in the bringing forth of their harvests, this celebration is reflective of Jesus Christ and his followers, and the gratitude they offered up to Almighty God for his benevolence to them for their establishment in this new land.

While Thanksgiving was celebrated for many years before it was elevated to national holiday status, that our forefathers chose to make it a national holiday attests to the Christian credentials of our country.  This also leads us to the conclusion that though America has no state church, she truly does have a national God.  It is a matter of historical record that Christianity, inclusive of her varied denominations, has been the dominant religion since colonial days.

With this in mind, it is not hard to see that there will be many who will celebrate this day without thankfulness toward Almighty God for the many benefits which he has bestowed upon them.  There are many in this country who are the avowed enemies of Jesus Christ, who are doing everything within their power to remove every vestige of Christianity from our public buildings under the pretense of “separation of church and state.”  But this is just a ruse to hide their hatred with lying lips.

To these I say, yet not I, but God:  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest:  for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.  (Luke 6:35)

While it is plain that God’s enemies are not kind to him, nor are they thankful for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon their country, God is kind to the unthankful.  Yet while God’s kindness may be upon our country today, think not that it will always be so.  The economic crisis that is looming on the horizon may just be apocalyptic in proportion, and we may find ourselves celebrating our next Thanksgiving with meagerness just as the very first one was celebrated by those we call Pilgrims.

For those of us who name the name of Christ, I say this:  Thanksgiving is a good time to call to remembrance all the ways in which God has benefited our lives.  Before you eat that Thanksgiving feast, it would do our children good to hear their fathers offer up prayers of thankfulness unto the God of Heaven and Earth drawn from the depths of their souls.  Perhaps as they ate, it would do them good to hear their mothers recount how many times God had answered their prayers in specific ways.  And then as the meal draws to a close, it would do them good to hear from God himself, and to know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Oh Christian, Thanksgiving is a day set aside by our country to honor our God --- Let us make him the heart of it.

Ron Hamman is pastor for Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at

357-4229.