By Pastor Ryan 

Stockstrom

Harvest Fellowship Church

Lee Strobel, a Christian apologist wrote, “To continue in atheism, I’d need to believe nothing produces everything, non-life produces life, randomness produces fine-tuning, chaos produces information, unconsciousness produces consciousness, and non-reason produces reason. I just didn’t have that much faith.”  

There’s a lot to unpack there but to summarize, it simply means—it’s easier to understand and believe in God than all of those other things combined to remain in atheism. It’s food for thought, for sure, but it also made me think about the bigger picture of Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving involves relationship. When I’m given something from someone else, I say ‘thank you.’ There’s an exchange that takes place. One gives and the other receives. And when thankfulness is added, it deepens the whole exchange. When I give a gift and a “thank you” is given in return, I desire to give more. And the exchange deepens our relationship. 

But what happens when you remove one of the parties? What if we are indeed grateful, but we misunderstand the source of our gift? Or despise the giver? Or deny the giver exists. It ultimately cheats one of the main benefits of showing gratitude—a growing relationship.   

The Pilgrims understood the gifts they had received, and they knew the Giver. And the wonderful thing is; the more we acknowledge and offer thanks and praise to God; the more He loves to draw close, and always gives far more than we could ever give in return. I hope you did have an amazing Thanksgiving, and I pray that as we continue to enter into the Christmas season, we would all reflect upon, acknowledge, and grow in gratitude to the Gift Giver Himself.