Thankful People
I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30
As we gather around Thanksgiving Day tables, many will be thankful for the sumptuous food set before them. But as Christians, our thankfulness focuses on spiritual blessings. We’re thankful for who we’ve become in Christ and for all God has given us. We did
nothing to earn the privilege of being God’s people. The Father chose us, and the Son loved us and died to redeem us from our sin. Only by faith have we received these blessings.
Henry Alford, ordained minister, scholar, as well as a poet, wrote a hymn that illustrates this (from Psalms and Hymns, 1844):
All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.
The parables of Jesus show that after God sowed His field, the devil came into the field and did some additional sowing: tares (weeds). The wheat and the tares look alike when they first grow; at harvest time, however, the difference can be plainly seen. The true grain has produced full kernels of wheat; the tares haven’t produced fruit.
As in the parable of “The Wheat and Tares,” we were all born as tares. We became wheat only by God’s grace. We may look like wheat, but as we produce fruit, the difference will be seen.
Alford’s hymn takes us beyond our present time to the final harvest when God shall come and discard the tares. The last stanza asks the Lord to come quickly:
Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.
This Thanksgiving, focus on your spiritual blessings. Pray for those you know who have not yet been gathered in. Are you thankful that God is patiently waiting for the full glorious harvest?
DIG DEEPER:
For two parables alluded to in Alford’s hymn, see Mark 4:26-29 and Matthew 13:47-50. According to these passages, what will the end of the age be like?
What are some guidelines on how to respond to God’s blessings given in Colossians 3:1-17? These do not just apply to our behavior with fellow Christians. How could such attitudes benefit your Thanksgiving gathering?
Nancy J. Baker
Bonus: Thanksgiving Word Search: thankful-unshakeable-god