11-21-11<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving. Let\u2019s see\u2026 that\u2019s the one between Halloween and Christmas. \u201cTurkey Day!\u201d The day before the big sales. Autumn decorations \u2013 think yellows and oranges. Football! Those big games out in the crisp air, or \u2013 one after another \u2013 on TV all day long.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time, Thanksgiving was a day of observance, set aside to thank God for His gifts. Now, the mention of God is an indictable offense in public schools, as proscribed as teaching that Christian Pilgrims gathered to give thanks for bountiful harvests. The closest children can be to a spiritual aspect of this \u201choliday\u201d (holy-day?) outside the fortress-walls of their homes and churches, still, is a vague acknowledgment of Mother Nature. Thank\u2026 who? For\u2026 what?<\/p>\n
So it is that Thanksgiving has become one more holiday in an annual American cycle where every month has the possibility of a long weekend built in (August is the slacker). But I invite us to step back a few steps, even a few years. Let us think<\/em> about Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n When the Pilgrims had their feast, and prayers, it was indeed to raise praises to God for peace with the natives, for establishments of their communities, for a bountiful harvest. When George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving, it was to bless God for the successful Revolution and for the foundations of a new nation. When Abraham Lincoln issued the first of the unbroken string of presidential proclamations in 1863, it was to ask forgiveness of God, and to thank Him for protection through a Civil War. In a Thanksgiving Proclamation of Theodore Roosevelt, he said: \u201cThe things of the body are good; the things of the intellect better; but best of all are the things of the soul,\u201d and he besought Americans to respond to God\u2019s gifts with gratitude and to fight for righteousness.<\/p>\n Without disregarding any<\/em> of those ideals and values (contemporary culture is doing that, very well, by itself) I wonder if we can step back even further, so to speak. And thank God for more than harvests and prosperity and victories. Think about it \u2013 we thank God for Jesus (um, that\u2019s our Christmas compartment); we thank God that Jesus died for our sins (check: Easter)\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n Surely we don\u2019t need a special day to thank God for being God (but Thursday will do), or to thank Him for things we don\u2019t often think about.<\/p>\n This week I received a stunning video, produced by the group TED (Technology, Education, Design), forwarded to me by my friend Mike Atkinson. It features the imagist Alexander Tsiaras, and the title is Conception to Birth<\/em>. Tsiaras has photographed, filmed, and recreated the development of a baby in the womb, and through the birth canal, to delivery. We see the tiniest cells and the most detailed pictures of beating hearts and evolving, folding brain components. He opens with an explanation of what we will see, and how he did it; and he closes with details of the miracle<\/em> that is the human body, and the implausibility (for he is a mathematician, among other things) of the wonderful workings of the human body.<\/p>\n How do we react to such acts of God? The voluble scientist Tsiaras keeps returning to the words \u201cDivine,\u201d and \u201cDivinity.\u201d For me, I was awestruck. In my dank past I was one of those \u201cblob\u201d adherents regarding the unborn. Eventually, like Ann Coulter, I came to realize the logical challenge inherent in the question: \u201cWhy is it called Birth Control and not Blob Control?\u201d And after watching this video several times, my additional reactions are also wonderment, and tears.<\/p>\n And can we not all respond to things we take for granted \u2013 life, the miracles of our bodies, everyday protections, health, simple blessings, friends, and communities of believers \u2013 with Thanks? <\/p>\n Maybe, this year, we can keep the decorations in the closet; the dinner-table harvest-sentiments at bay; and some of the football games at low-volume. And \u201cautomatic\u201d prayers. At least for a little while\u2026 let us Think before we Thank.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n This video, likewise, should not be compartmentalized for, say, \u201cSanctity of Life\u201d Day. Life is sacred every day \u2013 and this vid shows us how we all got here, surely a miraculous thing to contemplate every day of the year. If the video does not link, Google for Tsiaras and \u201cConception to Life\u201d and you will find it. Its production is, itself, a miracle\u2026 for it brings us closer to the Creator God. By the way, I particularly appreciate the background music as the speed-motion development of a baby is shown: Antonio Vivaldi\u2019s Gloria<\/em>. Glorious indeed.<\/p>\n