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.