For many years, Thanksgiving was quite a big deal at my mother’s house. When I was growing up, often as not Thanksgiving found our military family in the throes of moving to my father’s next duty assignment. Some years, we had just packed our belongings to move, or had just arrived at our new domicile and they were still packed up in their moving boxes. Still, my mother somehow always made sure our Thanksgiving meal was a special occasion. In her latter years, the Thanksgiving gatherings she hosted for scores of friends and family became legendary.

While my father was still alive we were all required by the master of the household to state aloud as the family enjoyed our after-dinner pie those things for which we were thankful. This was quite ironic since none of us at the time were actively serving, and most of us didn’t even know the One True and Living God who had blessed us with the things for which we wished (or were forced) to express our thanks. Consequently, we mostly had not a clue to whom we should be thankful. Nevertheless, this tradition of formally stating our gratitude aloud carried on for many years until it eventually simply petered out – more’s the pity.

Thanksgiving is just as much a time for pondering our lives and remembering – if we can – the blessings of God as it is for actually giving thanks. For me, sometimes I was so mired in self-loathing and self-pity I found it quite a challenge to come up with something to say as my mandatory turn to state my thanks came around the Thanksgiving dinner table. I’m ashamed to say that I find myself feeling a little like that this year. As 2025 draws to a close with our traditional holiday celebrations and I ponder the blessings and challenges of the year, what stands out in my mind is the number of funerals I’ve attended this year. Some of the deaths among my loved ones and distant acquaintances were sudden and unexpected. Some were long anticipated and even welcomed – members of my parents’ generation who had perhaps labored overlong carrying their mortal coils. But as I forge into the middle of my eighth decade on Earth, my own contemporaries are dropping off the twig with increasing frequency. I find myself dreading the inevitable phone calls that I might receive any minute of any day. I try to ignore the inevitability that my own loved ones must soon enough make such calls on my behalf.

I’m reminded of my friend John from church in California who would sidle up to me on most Sunday mornings to say, “Guess what happened to me this morning,” then after a brief pause shout out, “I woke up again!” But then one week, John hadn’t awakened some morning – not bodily. As I attend memorials more frequently for my contemporaries, I find that what I’m most thankful for is simple survival. But when I ponder that blessing, two questions immediately spring to mind. Why did God choose to wake me up this morning, and why am I thankful for it?

God didn’t awaken me today because I deserve His mercy and grace – far from it. Yet, God loves me with a steadfast and boundless love and continues to awaken me each morning – not because of my character, but despite it. But why? Pondering this mystery, King David wrote…

Surely God has His own reasons for awakening me each morning. Trusting and knowing that leaves me to discover those purposes each day and to obey His callings. I myself am powerless to do that. So God, knowing my weakness, empowers me by His Spirit dwelling within me to do His bidding. The apostle Paul wrote of this…

For these things too I am truly grateful. God has spared me through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross from the judgment my own nature deserves. He has blessed me with abundant life both here on Earth, and in eternity with Him in His glory – all despite what my own rebellious and sinful nature richly deserves. Not only that, He has blessed me with the seal of His Spirit as a surety that He will fulfill all the blessings that He has ordained for me.

But with all that said, in all honesty I must admit that this present life on Earth – thankful as I am for the blessing of it – is not what I would choose for myself or for anyone. Each morning that God awakens me, I must face another day of life in a world mired in suffering and self-destruction. With each passing day, the relentless decay of this fallen world worsens. I bring up my news feed to find endless headlines about people harming one another. The entertainment media wallow in debauchery and rebellion against the innate sense of righteousness and justice with which God Himself has endowed us all. Even the advertisement inundating the media is largely for drugs designed to treat horrible, debilitating maladies with which my fellow creatures are beset. Every day I increasingly long for God to fulfill His promise to gather me to Himself in His Heaven where all this suffering will be banished and forgotten. As Paul wrote…

So thankful as I am for my daily awakening, I am even more grateful for the sure knowledge that this earthly life is but a vapor and that one day God will not awaken me to this life of suffering but will awaken me to eternal life in His presence.

Finally dearly beloved, I am thankful for you who have persevered through this dour little Thanksgiving missive. Ponder today those things with which God has endowed each of us, and make sure you remember and acknowledge the Living God who gives them.