Blue Umbrella Official Thanksgiving_Christmas Issue-1 | Page 12

GIVE THANKS
by Meghan J.
T he smell of the turkey cooking, the
sound of laughter and Christmas carols, people
rushing to and fro to get all of their food and
gifts- - this is the holiday season. W hen we think
of the holidays, we generally think of our
traditions, the things we do to celebrate the
holidays. But what are the holidays really all
about? W hy do we even celebrate them?
Now, this question may seem cliché since
most of us know that T hanksgiving is about
being thankful and Christmas is about Jesus.
End of story, right? Not really, because there is
much more to these holidays than just that and
sometimes we fail to realize that Christmas and
T hanksgiving go hand- in- hand.
We know that T hanksgiving is about
being thankful, but it can be easy to forget who
we are giving thanks to and why we are doing it.
I Chronicles 16:34 says, ?Give thanks to the
L ord, for he is good; his love endures forever.?
T hanksgiving is a time for us to give thanks to
God for all of the blessings He has given us.
Most tend to thank God for things like family
and friends, food, their home, etc. T hese are all
great things to be thankful for, but there is
something we should be thankful for that is
greater than all of those things: the gift of
Jesus. T hat is where Christmas and
T hanksgiving collide.
I n L uke 2 we read about Jesus? birth.
T his passage is the recording of how our Savior,
the K ing of the World, came down to earth in
the most humble way possible. He came as a
baby, born in a stable that was located in a
cruddy, little town and slept in a manger. He
was fully human and fully God, which means
that He felt all of the things we feel, just
without the sin. He worked miracles and taught
us all so much. He then died the death of a
criminal, even though He did nothing wrong, to
save us, to be our Savior. T hat is something to
be thankful for.