6606 Maplecrest Road, Fort Wayne, IN  46835          (260)- 485- 5122

Epiphany Lutheran Church

November 2008

Dear Epiphany,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

Experts tell us that Thanksgiving is the most traveled holiday of the year.  There are more people who travel by airplane, train, or car over the extended Thanksgiving weekend than any other time of the year.  Why is that?  The Season of Thanksgiving is only four days long, and during holidays like Christmas people are usually a little more relaxed because there is the week between Christmas and New Years that   allows people to travel at a more relaxed pace.  Why is it important for us to make it home or to be with family and friends during Thanksgiving?  The initial response may be because it is family tradition.  We “always gather together” around the big table in the dining room with all of the traditional fixings.  Another response may be that we like to give thanks to God for another year of life and the many blessings we have received.

Each year on the eve of Thanksgiving we gather here at Epiphany Lutheran Church to worship and give thanks to God for the blessings we have received.  Each year we start the service with the same item being read, the proclamation President Abraham Lincoln made on the day our country officially started celebrating Thanksgiving as a national holiday.  President Lincoln found it important for this great nation of ours to officially set aside a moment to give thanks to God. If we put it into the context of when he made the speech it was during part of the Civil War.  The Civil War hopefully has forever changed the course of our history as a nation and individuals.  Hopefully we have learned that a house cannot stand divided against itself.

The month of November should cause each of us to pause for a moment and give thanks for the blessings we have in our lives.  I know some of you right now are   saying, “Pastor, with the way the economy has been… I don’t have much to give thanks for!”  You are still here as Jane Dawkins says, “I am still able to receive God’s grace and blessings today.”  I am thankful people like Jane can come up with a saying like that, because I am not usually that quick on my feet to think of rich sayings that are so full of God’s gifts.  Each of us has our family and friends for which to be thankful.  Each of us has God’s love in our lives.  You are richly blessed if you have all of this in your life.  So pause and give thanks.

When was the last time you gave thanks to God for the people in your life?  I am not talking about saying “thank you” to them for doing something.  I am talking about giving thanks to God for having them in your life.  Make it a point this year to give thanks to God for all of those people - both family and friends, that are a part of your life.

I am thankful for you!  You are a blessing from God!

 

In Christ,

Pastor Richard Hartman