25 Nov Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Likely like you, I love the Thanksgiving holiday, as its celebration of gratitude is a centrally Christian concept.

I hope you’ll make time in your day that day for gratitude and for a focused moment of giving thanks to God, no matter your situation this Thanksgiving, whether you have much or little.

Jesus, before feeding the multitude in Matthew 14, with only 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed thousands of people,

took “the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.” (verse 19)

And then, of course, the miracle happened.

Again, I hope that no matter where you are this year, you can, like our Savior, take even the little in our hands, look up to heaven, and give thanks for it.

I know I am grateful for you and all that God has allowed us to do this year in the city!

Another reason I love Thanksgiving is that it really is the front end of the Christmas season, or what is also called “Advent”, which means “arrival” or “the coming of”.

If you’re new here, during the Advent season, we like to incorporate a touch of traditional church elements into our Sunday services—besides some traditional Christmas music (done many times untraditionally!), we like to have a bit of candle lighting and some Advent readings to help us mark the season and guide our hearts towards Christmas itself.

And yes, I know the holiday wasn’t likely on December 25th or even during the winter—the real point of it is to celebrate, remember, and internalize what the Incarnation means—that God has come in the flesh, has become a light to the world, and that our world and cities and lives are not forgotten by Him.

So, I hope that, as we begin celebrating the Advent season this Sunday, you would say, along with the prophets of old and God’s people today,

“O Come, O Come Immanuel!”

Happy Thanksgiving (and Advent!)

Morgan