The Thanksgiving Lesson
by J. R. Miller, 1912
Gladness may not be thanksgiving. It certainly
is not all of thanksgiving. One may have a heart bubbling with joy,
without a note of thanksgiving. The task of happiness is one to which we
should all firmly set ourselves. To be miserable in this glorious world, is
most unfit. We should cultivate joyousness. But our present lesson is a
larger and deeper one. Thanksgiving implies thought of God. One may be glad
all the day—and never think of God. Thanksgiving looks up with every breath,
and sees God as Father from whom all blessings come. Thanksgiving is praise.
The heart is full of gratitude. Every moment has something in it to inspire
love. The lilies made Jesus think of his Father, for it was he who clothed
them in beauty. The providence of our lives, if we think rightly of it, is
simply God caring for us. Our circumstances may sometimes be hard, our
experiences painful, and we may see nothing in them to make us glad. But
faith teaches us that God is always good and always kind,
whatever the present events may be. We may be thankful, therefore,
even when we cannot be glad. Our hearts may be grateful, knowing that
good will come to us even out of pain and loss.
This is the secret of true thanksgiving. It thinks always
of God and praises him for everything. The song never dies out in the heart,
however little there may be in the circumstances of life to make us glad.
Thanksgiving is a quality of all noble and unselfish life. No man is so
unworthy, as he who never cherishes the sentiment of gratitude, who receives
life's gifts and favors—and never gives back anything in return for all he
gets.
Until we think seriously of it, we do not begin to
realize what we are receiving continually from those about us. None may give
us money, or do for us things which the world counts gifts or favors, but
these are not the best things. Our teachers are ever enriching us by the
lessons they give us. Those who require hard tasks of us and severely demand
of us the best we can do, are our truest benefactors.
Sometimes we complain of the hardness of our lives, that
we have had so little of ease and luxury, that we have had to work so hard,
bear so many burdens, and sometimes we let ourselves grow bitter and
unthankful as we think of the severity of our experience. But of all
times—it has been in these very severities that we have got the richest
qualities in our character. If we are living truly, serving God and
following Christ, there is no event or experience for which we may not be
thankful. Every voice of our lips should be praise. Every day
of our years should be a thanksgiving day. He who has learned the
Thanksgiving lesson, well has found the secret of a beautiful life.
"Praise is lovely," says the Hebrew Psalmist. Lovely
means fit, graceful, pleasing, attractive. Ingratitude is never lovely. The
life that is always thankful is winsome, ever a joy to all who know it.
The influence of an ever-praising life on those it
touches, is almost divine. The way to make others good—is to be good
yourself. The way to diffuse a spirit of thanksgiving—is to be thankful
yourself. A complaining spirit makes unhappiness everywhere.
How may we learn this thanksgiving lesson? It comes not
merely through a glad natural disposition. There are some favored people who
were born cheerful. They have in them a spirit of happiness which nothing
ever quenches. They always see the bright side of things. They are naturally
optimistic. But the true thanksgiving spirit is more than this. It is
something which can take even an unhappy and an ungrateful spirit—and make
it new in its sweetness and beauty. It is something which can change
discontent and complaining into praise; ingratitude into grateful, joyful
trust.
Christian thanksgiving is the life of Christ in the
heart, transforming the disposition and the whole character. Thanksgiving
must be wrought into the life as a habit—before it can become a fixed
and permanent quality. An occasional burst of praise, in the midst of years
of complaining, is not what is required. Songs on rare, sunshiny days; and
no songs when skies are cloudy—will not make a life of gratitude. The heart
must learn to sing always. This lesson is learned only when it
becomes a habit which nothing can weaken. We must persist in
being thankful. When we can see no reason for praise—we must believe in the
divine love and goodness, and sing in the darkness. Thanksgiving has
attained its rightful place in us, only when it is part of all our days and
dominates all our experiences.
We may call one day in the year Thanksgiving Day, and
fill it with song and gladness, remembering all the happy things we have
enjoyed, all the pleasant events, all the blessings of our friendships, all
our prosperities. But we cannot gather all our year's thanksgivings into any
brightest day. We cannot leave today without thanks, and then thank God
tomorrow for today and tomorrow both. Today's sunshine will not light
tomorrow's skies. Every day must be a thanksgiving day for itself.