Give Thanks and Give Back

Come, ye thankful people, come,

Raise the song of harvest home!

All is safely gathered in,

Ere the winter storms begin;

God, our Maker, doth provide

For our wants to be supplied;

Come to God’s own temple, come;

Raise the song of harvest home!

It has been such a long, warm, and glorious fall this year.  Farmers in the area have basically wrapped up fall harvest.  I just gave away the last of my tomato harvest and even though Gertrude the geranium is still in full bloom, she was hauled down to her winter quarters next to the washing machine.  Thanksgiving seems to be the marker signaling the close to one season and the beginning of the next.  In the past it is been the harvest celebration at the end of the growing season, the last hurrah before the rolling in of the winter storms.  It seems that the focus has change to still mark the change of the season but it is more the kick off for the Christmas shopping season.  

Recently I was discussing spiritual disciplines with a few friends.  These disciplines included reading, studying, and memorizing scripture, prayer, service, fasting, giving or tithing, etc.  I mentioned the discipline of celebration and they both gave me a surprised look.  Celebration doesn’t get a lot of press in the spiritual disciplines but the Israelites in the Old Testament to celebrating seriously and I think God enjoys a good party.  There were at least seven major feasts listed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  A handful of these were harvest festivals since it was an agrarian society.  

At one of the festivals the firstfruits of the harvest were offered.  I think the following sums up the purpose of these offers:

The offering of the firstfruits to God was a statement of gratitude and a confession that the benefits of the harvest came by his grace. Also, in giving the very first of their produce to God, Israel learned not to hoard but to trust God for provision.
I was surprised by “a confession that the benefits of the harvest come by his grace”.  I might always be a little nervous when I see the word “confession”.  I do like the idea of going beyond being thankful to humbling confessing that my work and striving had nothing to do with these blessings but it is all by His grace.  I also think I fall into the trap of “hoarding my blessings”.  If God blessed me with something once does that me he will bless in the same ways again or do I need to store up that blessing since it might not come around again?  God may bless in the same way or He may choose a completely different avenue of blessing but we can trust that He will always provide for us.  

Another harvest festival was called the Feast of Weeks.  It celebrated the end of the grain festival—very much like our Thanksgiving.  The purpose of this festival was to give gratitude to God for all the crops that had been gathered in during the year.  In fact, each individual made an offering and the portions of the offering were based on the size of his harvest.  

Here’s my editorial portion of this post: Each year it seems that more of the Thanksgiving Day is carved away from giving thanks and turned into an extra day for Black Friday.  I would venture to say that Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping crowds make it difficult to ponder and confess all the blessings we have only because of His grace.  Kudos to companies who are willing to sacrifice some of their bottom line for the sake of not taking a chunk of Thanksgiving Day and turning it into cash.  A few years ago REI, a large outdoor retailer, decided that it wouldn’t even open its stores for Black Friday but encourages its customers to go outside instead of standing in lines.  That’s my plan for Friday.  It’s not that I am sacrificing anything to miss the sales—in fact I will probably avoid all retail areas until January.  But hopefully Arthur and I will take a hike, enjoying the fall weather since it may be our last chance before swirling snows, and recount God’s blessings.  Additionally, just like the Feasts of Weeks, we have an opportunity to give in proportion to what we have “harvested” this year on Giving Tuesday.  Giving Tuesday started about 4 years ago as a day set aside to give to charitable organizations in the chaos of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Many organizations have matching funds to double what is donated on Giving Tuesday.  Heifer International, which is an organization that gives farm animals to people to help end of the cycle of poverty, has a grant to double donations this year and World Vision is teaming up with Thirty-One products to provide bags or totes with donations made on Tuesday.  

We are so blessed in ways that are not universal.  We are reminded that as I write this, almost one person in one hundred alive today are either refugees or internally displaced due to political upheaval or natural disaster.  It is not due to our own efforts that we are not among those numbers, it is pure grace, and I hope that fact will fill us with compassion towards those whose external circumstances have made the future deeply uncertain.  Consider giving to an international relief organizations this Thanksgiving season to alleviate this huge source of human suffering.

We are blessed to live in homes with running water, heating and air conditioning, and comfortable furnishings, all in a time when so many in our own country will have no home to turn to.  While we may work hard every day to provide these comforts, it is also very true that the circumstances very much outside our control and given us completely by grace have given us this gift.  We were born into loving families that nurtured us physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually; support systems that are far from universal.  Let compassion be your default position towards those you see on the street, and offer a smile and an encouraging word should circumstance allow it.

Today, we will still down to a feast at a time when one billion live off of less than a dollar a day and one person in six in the United States will at some point this year experience food uncertainty.  We are again humbled by God’s goodness in providing us with good jobs made possible through the collective workings of this country that creates a stable economy.  Remember God’s love for the widow and orphan, and think of your local food pantry this holiday season.

So many of our needs and pleasures are provided for as a direct result of our education.  We praise God for the advancements and social good provided for by a society that values education enough to provide it to all children and has, to varying degrees, recognized the value of higher education and worked to make is accessible for the rich and poor.  That societal stance has made the life we live possible.  We are reminded that huge disparities in educational opportunity still exist today.  As God has gifted you, encourage the imagination of the children you interact with, and consider giving to organizations to bring the blessing of education to children around the world.

We are blessed with easy access to health care.  It is scary to consider where Arthur might be were it not for the care he received while fighting through depression, and we praise God for the health care providers who made his clean bill of health possible.  So many do not receive that care, and not just when it comes do mental health disorders.  Diabetes goes untreated, dental work goes undone, preventable diseases kill so many, even in this affluent country, that we are overwhelmed with thanksgiving for the grace given our family and grieved by the fact that so many do not receive the same.  Encourage and support programs that work to bring about these ends.

We need to nurture an attitude of thanksgiving for all the provisions God has provided and also recognize that we need to give back in return.  Now I need to go peel five pounds of potatoes for my mom so we can so sit around a table filled with several of the people who mean the most to me in the world.  Omnia Vincit Amor.