​Before we sit down to carve that turkey...

Thanksgiving is a harvest feast. It’s the USA’s great effusion of joy and generosity for all the good things that we are privileged to enjoy in this land. It’s founded on the legend of generosity between very different ethnic groups. And there are the traditional foods, like turkey and stuffing, baked squash, spiced apples, and pumpkin pie. (OK, so they didn’t actually eat most of these things at the first meal of thanksgiving; don’t be picky.) More people are on the move Thanksgiving weekend than practically any other time of the year. Families gather for this great event and, remarkably, no one need bring a gift. A dish to pass, maybe, but not a present.

Thanksgiving holds a monumental place in the American psyche. It’s huge.

This is wonderful. The USA is really the only country that does what we do to the extent that we do it. Thanksgiving Day is peculiarly, uniquely ours. This is because we are, as a matter of fact, lavishly blessed. And deep down, beneath our lesser qualities, we know it.

So as we gather this Thanksgiving Day to celebrate our harvest blessings, let us not forget how this holiday fits into our Christian tradition: We are blessed because Someone has and continues to bless us. Let us not forget that we didn’t do this all on our own.