Thanksgiving is a great tradition. We stop as fall wanes and get with friends and family and eat like the depression will start again at noon on Black Friday. Ok, we throw in a little football on TV and that usually rounds out the day...along with a turkey juice induced nap that comes over everyone about 3:30 P.M. Only the most loyal Lion's fan usually stays awake through this version of the American siesta.

We all have our traditions and habits. Not often is it "over the river and through the woods", but mostly it is to Grandmother's house we go. And yes, the horse-power, with the Garmin, usually knows the way. The great irony of this big day is that often Thanksgiving is about everything but thanksgiving. Often the day goes down with large portions of turkey and dressing, huge batches of pumpkin pie, well enough gravy, mashed potatoes a heaping, rolls enough for the 82nd airborne, cranberry salads a plenty and an all too small portion of thanks; thanks to God, our Creator, from whom comes every good and perfect gift...and days with those we love.

Sure these are hard days for our country. We are at war and ten percent of us are out of work. But America is still the best place on earth to live. Just for a moment, the whole group of us needs to get on a plane and take a trip to some part of the developing world. A meal or two in a one room hut or corrugated steel "home" would reshape our vision of what we have and how good God is to us here. It would be a thanks inducing trip.

Gratitude is running at lower ebb these days. The apostle Paul spoke of a coming age when gross assumption and entitlement would reign over the human heart. "You owe me" is a completely different spirit than "I am grateful". God finds the latter so much more attractive, and it is so much more appropriate...and it is the standard for which we will give account on the Great Day. At Southgate, we are working together at this discipline. We have been marked by that great rhetorical question in the Bible, "What do we have that we have not been given?" Nothing, absolutely nothing.

So yes, we are working at gratitude at Southgate. We are hosting a special service of thanks that follows this year's Big Meal! There is much for which to be grateful. We are stopping to acknowledge that before a generous God. This Sunday, November 28th, we'll gather at 10:30 A.M. and return thanks for His bounty. Why don't you join us? Consider this your special invitation.

Actually gratitude has become a bit of a habit at Southgate. Thanksgiving comes before we celebrate Christmas. The package of Christmas, Good Friday and Easter has brought us to forgiveness, hope and a life that sustains our gratitude. Jesus Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift."