Share The True Meaning Of Thanksgiving & Christmas This Year!
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.’ (Joel 3:14)
As we approach Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are many who do not understand what these holidays mean. As Christians, we often fail in our representation of what the true meaning and purpose of these holidays are.
We continue to live by and favor the secular viewpoints of what they represent; Thanksgiving is getting together and sharing a big dinner spread, followed by eating desserts and leftovers and watching the slate of football games aired from noon to midnight. Christmas is to give and get gifts, celebrate with friends and family, and watch Christmas movies and sing Christmas songs, most about Santa Claus or the snow.
This approach, however, for the Christian is wrong. Both Thanksgiving and Christmas are celebrations of our Faith in Christ. Thanksgiving is an outward, public declaration of what we should do each day; gives thanks to the Lord for all that He provides us. Though it is typically in a private setting, Thanksgiving is a national holiday.
Generally considered a tradition started by the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, after a bountiful harvest in 1621, Thanksgiving feasts typically were held by different communities irregularly and sometimes more than once, usually in celebration of harvests of crops. Not all crops were harvested at the same time, and often there were multiple celebrations for what food the Lord provided.
Later, each state celebrated Thanksgiving on a single day, but that day differed from state to state. Eventually, the date coalesced into the final Thursday of November each year; to line up with the date the last British troops left the US after the end of the Revolutionary War, an event other than food to be thankful for.
President Abraham Lincoln, during the US Civil War, formally proclaimed Thanksgiving to God as a national holiday, to proclaim thanks to God for His provisions and His guidance of the Union forces in turning the battles in the North’s favor (and eventual victory). Due to Reconstruction, however, most of the southern states would not celebrate Thanksgiving formally until the 1870’s.
The last adjustment made was a minor one with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt making Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday as opposed to the last Thursday of November, in 1942. This adjustment eliminated the rare occasions the last Thursday was the fifth Thursday, usually the 29th or 30th of November, and this adjustment was made to satisfy retail stores wanting to prepare for Christmas shopping earlier.
Christmas, of course, for the Christian is to celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus, with most accounts lining it up in 4 B.C. (Originally the Julian calendar set it for ‘year 0’, but it was found that was incorrect, so Jesus’ birth year was reset while the calendar stayed the same.) We do not have an exact date when Jesus was born, and most likely was not at the end of December.
The date of 25 December was assigned as the day to celebrate Christmas by the very early Catholic Church around 300 A.D., with some accounts (and in my opinion, somewhat accurate) given that Christmas replaced the Roman holiday of Saturnalia as the Roman Empire grew solidly Christian just prior to this date. The Christmas tree was likely a concession to Germanic tribes that converted to Christianity and had a pagan festival around the same time that involved trees soon after the decision of setting the 25 December date.
Setting these holidays as national (and even international) celebrations have been good and bad as while many have a passing knowledge that Thanksgiving is for thanking God of His provisions given to us (good), there is no further Faith or interest in God behind that knowledge (bad).
The same can be said of Christmas; many know it represents Jesus’ birthday, but there is no interest by many to pursue further knowledge of Jesus. The focus of both holidays are passively (sometimes actively) selfish; eating food and gaining gifts is among the primary purposes of the holidays.
But our verse for today, one I’ve provided before, should remind the Christian that Thanksgiving is not about the food or the football, and Christmas is not about singing carols or the gifts, but it is all about celebrating the goodness of God. Thanksgiving and Christmas should be for the Christian to promote Jesus; there are many who are lost and either don’t know who Jesus is at all or only know enough about Jesus to be dangerous to themselves.
Don’t shy away from Thanksgiving’s true purpose; to give thanks to God openly and publicly for all that He has provided for you – your health and healing; your strength; your time, treasures and talents; and all He provides for you – a roof over your head, the money in your account, the clothes in your closet, and the food on your plate and in the pantry.
At Christmas, the true purpose is not the gifts given to you or those you give, it is the celebration of the gift God gave all of us as written in John 3:16, the gift of Jesus to all people so, if individually those who accept Him as Lord do so, would gain Eternal Life with Christ and the Father in Heaven.
These holidays are perfect for witnessing and performing the Great Commission, teachable moments that Jesus is God Manifested, and that God loves everyone. He provides for our needs and so we should give Him alone the thanks. He provides us His Son for our Salvation, so we should reciprocate and give ourselves to Him and His service.
Many will celebrate the holidays, but many are in that ‘valley of decision’, and they can’t make an informed decision because they don’t know Jesus. Some know who Jesus is, but they haven’t made a personal relationship with Him as they haven’t been formally introduced.
Make it a point this year to use these holidays for Great Commission work – the mangers are on display, and the turkeys are going to be on table. They are symbols that tell a deeper, richer tale that needs us Christians to bring to light – God loves everyone, and wants everyone to have Salvation, but they must know what to ask for in order to receive it, or they will miss the biggest celebration of all – the eons and eons of being with the Lord in Heaven.
