This came to mind on the evening of Thanksgiving Day Eve:
When I was a kid, I knew no one who had a shower in their home. We didn’t. As best I can remember, I was around 13 when our home had a shower.
I remember a period when we didn’t have hot water in our house. Dad was building our home, and we moved in before it was finished. Running hot water was a luxury we could not afford. We would heat water on the kitchen stove in pots and pans and carry it to the tub. Yes, we recycled the bath water, just adding another pan of hot water.
These days, in the fall and winter, the best part of my pre-bed routine is the instant exhilaration of stepping into a steaming shower. That just might be my favorite winter activity.
I have had enough cold showers to heighten my appreciation of the hot shower. One cold shower was enough.
On this Thanksgiving Eve, my awareness factor was high on the sensitivity scale. The goodness of the shower itself expanded into a few moments of inexpressible completeness and fullness. I don’t think I would use the word “serenity” because it was a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, coevolving with anticipation and excitement.
Besides the shower, I do remember the historical significance of this National Holiday. I am aware that the place I live, the United States of America, had a difficult beginning and is now frustrated by its notorious flaws. But I would rather live here than in any other country in the world. I have visited several and prefer this one.
Certainly, my life has not been threatened as the Pilgrims’ lives were. But I have had a few bashings and lashings that made me wonder if life was worth the trouble. You know, those times when the pain of living is screaming so loudly that it is challenging to hear the calming voice of hope.
Thanksgiving, from a Biblical perspective, has two parts: the Greater Part and the Lesser Part.
Does this sound familiar? It should if you have spent any time on the first page of the Old Testament. God created two lights; the greater light and the lesser light, the sun and the moon. Together, they rule the earth by providing the necessary light for life to flourish.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for seasons[c] and for days and years. 15 They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night – as well as the stars.” Genesis 1:14-16, CSB
Our current place of habitation in the physical universe is, in and of itself, there to reveal to us the nature of the One who Created it. The one big insight that Thanksgiving 2025 has brought to me is that the ruling of the sun and moon over my daily life is a reflection of how gratitude is to rule my spiritual life.
The greater part of thanksgiving is the collection of God’s spoken words, the Bible. The lesser part of thanksgiving would be the actions those words have caused, the physical universe. In short, what God says and what God does form the anatomy of gratitude. I think the discipline of Physics is merely a detailed inspection of the faithfulness of God.
For me, and perhaps you, thanksgiving has been generated by examining what I have come through up to my most recent exhale. But this year it’s different. Not only do I see the good things God has done in my life, as well as the bad things transformed into good, but I am also realizing that I can and want to give thanks for all of the things God will do in the future. As the physical attributes of my life diminish in a shortening future, the promises of God will be increasingly manifested as He demonstrates the “goodness” of His creation.
Just as gravity always works to hold my feet on the earth, so it is with His plan to glorify His own person. I am thankful to have a future that is wonderfully planned, cultivated, and harvested for the Creator. I am more thankful for what is ahead than for what lies in the past.
There is nothing to fear in the future, only circumstances in which He will manifest His great love. The future will be difficult much of the time, but even those difficulties will prove the wonder of Yahweh!
1 Thessalonians 5:18
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Photo – I took this picture a few years ago while on a field trip with one of my grandchildren to the Nashville Zoo.
Baldwin Heirlooms 