Here we are again, on the eve of another Thanksgiving. Today promises to be a crazy day for me as I’m hosting tomorrow’s feast. This means my day will be spent waging a valiant battle to prepare my home for guests while simultaneously attempting to keep my kids from destroying my efforts. (Yesterday that included moving all the chairs out of the house to thwart my climbing-obsessed toddler’s continuing mission to seek and destroy anything out of his reach). In the midst of all this preparation I have been trying to remember to be thankful. Even as I fold clothes for hours, pick up the living room again, clean the kids rooms again, re-do everything that never stays done again.
There’s a certain amount of reflection that comes along with being thankful. I am thankful in the present tense for the many blessings and opportunities afforded to me in the past tense. Being thankful is a type of testimony, where I search out the Lord’s provision in my life and agree with Him that it is good. Even if it was not that good, through the lens of thankfulness I can always find ways to appreciate God’s sovereignty in the process.
For this reason, of seeking to find ways to be thankful for the past, looking back can also tempt me to a bit of nostalgia. To long for the days when Thanksgiving was it’s own holiday, not just a feast in preparation for the consumer feeding frenzy Black Friday, driving retail workers away from their families to care for the swarming masses. When stores didn’t immediately trade out pumpkins and ghosts for fake fir trees and wrapping. I want to throw myself back into an idyllic past, creating a Thanksgiving set in a Thomas Kinkade painting, light pouring into every window. I want to shake my head with the rest of the Thanksgiving idealists as I see Christmas trappings popping up as the Jack-O-Lantern’s are being thrown out.
And yet.
Yet I too am transported forward in anticipation even as I try to make a point to remember the past with thankfulness. I cannot help but feel a twinge of excitement in my stomach as I revel in my first Egg Nog latte of the season. To glimpse the twinkle of colorful lights as I drive home in the now early dark. To sit with the wishlist and our budget and a prayer that they will somehow decide to become friends this year.
Maybe there is a natural progression from remembrance to anticipation that, like many other things, has been played out to an extreme in our culture tending to gloss over the former for the intoxication of the latter.
Turning to scripture we see over and again God’s people told to remember; commanded to remember by marking time with feasts and ceremonies. Remember how God brought them out of Egypt, remember the signs and wonders, remember how He provided food and water in the most dire conditions. They are not reminded to remember just to take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about their thankfulness for His provision around a table laden with turkey and succulent sides. No, they are called to remember for the sake of their future!
James K. A. Smith insightfully touches on this in one of his essays in his book Discipleship in the Present Tense. He writes, “When God constantly enjoins his people to remember, he is always asking them to remember forward, to remember for the sake of the future.” He continues, “When Christians remember, we are not retreating to the past; we are being catapulted toward a future. God’s people inhabit time in this strange tension, where we are called to remember so that we can hope.”
As God’s people we can look back on the many glories and tragedies of our lives with thanks because we have the hope that they all have a purpose in the story of our lives playing out into the overall Story of Life. We can be thankful for His provision in our past reminding us of His faithfulness that has no end. He has been faithful in the past; He will continue to be faithful to us.
Christ calls us to remember with bread and wine His body broken and blood shed for us. Not just to revel in the glory of His sacrifice, but to immerse ourselves in our present hope as we anticipate His return.
Let’s be aware of this tomorrow as we gather and count our blessings (and forget the calories). We will remember His mighty acts, His blessings and provisions in our past. We will even remember the tragedies He helped us endure. Not to reach and claw for a past that will not return, but to fill us with excitement that we serve a living God who worked in our past and will surely continue with us into the future. Truly, the best is yet to come. Advent is coming, Christmas is coming, He is coming back!
Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!
Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered,
O offspring of Israel his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
—1 Chronicles 16: 8-13, 34
What are you thankfully remembering that gives you hope this year?
Read this when you posted it, but I’m finally returning so I can comment. Love this post, Aleah. We started collecting stones last year to mark ways God has brought us through / answered prayers. Whenever we face an uncertain time we look to those stones as reminders of God’s faithfulness to our family. With them we can hope, like you said, in whatever He is doing next. I am thankfully remembering that when Owen was first conceived we worried he might have been exposed to nasty cancer drugs…and yet he came out with a full head of hair and a healthy body. Amazing!
We are called to remember so that we can hope – love this.
Happy thanksgiving, friend.
My God is in control always. My God is faithful. Therefore I HAVE hope.