And Be Thankful, Colossians 3:12-17

Welcome you to our annual Thanksgiving service.
America’s first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 by the Pilgrims in recognition of God’s mercy during their first year in the New World. Thanksgiving was made a national holiday in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln as an appeal to God to heal the wounds of the nation during the Civil War.
Over the years, we have often lost sight of that original meaning of the Thanksgiving observance. In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to help with retail sales. (We’ve been commercializing holidays for a long time)
Today, we often speak of Thanksgiving as a time to spend with family, eat too much, and watch football—and to be thankful for what we have. While there is nothing really wrong with any of that (maybe eating too much), I think it misses the real point of Thanksgiving.
We are often thankful for the gifts, but we forget the Gift-Giver. Perhaps we are not thankful for the gifts, and we blame the Gift-giver.
Today, as we open God’s Word for a few moments, we want to focus on the Giver of good gifts. As we unpack this passage from Colossians, we will see many reasons for thankfulness.