Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

As I think about this coming Thanksgiving, I feel grateful. Grateful that my family is healthy. Grateful that I have a new grandbaby. Grateful that I have a strong marriage and a loving husband. Grateful that I belong to a giving and Bible-centered church community. Grateful that I have supportive friends. Grateful that I have a faithful editor, Jennie Jang, who clarifies and often makes sense of these blogs! Yes, I feel grateful.

I know that on Thursday many will give thanks. Some to a God they don’t really believe in or actually know. Some to a God Whom they will forget on Friday. Some to the universe. Some to mother earth. Some merely to family and friends.

But to whom do I feel grateful? To whom will I give thanks?

I will give thanks to the One to Whom Jesus prayed. The disciples once asked Him to teach them how to pray. In response He said, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name…” Luke 11:2.

Despite the reality that Jesus and the Father were one, He prayed to the Father. In fact, Scripture records Jesus calling God “Father” more than 60 times. The coming of Christ has given us—all of us—the invitation to be adopted as children into God’s family.

“But to all who did receive Him [referring to Jesus] who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13

What does this mean to me? It means that I have the privilege to call God my Father. I have the privilege to pray to Him. I have the privilege to give Him thanks for His many blessings, and for His presence in my life.

And for these privileges, I am most grateful.