Living out our thanksgiving word

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

 - Romans 8.16-17   

Thanksgiving: a day in America when many will sit down with friends and family and embark on a crazy food journey! Before diving into the turkey, stuffing, cranberries and the like, might we first search the depths of our hearts so as to remember the dramatic intervention taken on our behalf? Years ago the Godhead chose to shower its lavish love through creating - that is in Their creation of the human.  For through creation, the glory of God was set forth through the unimaginable grips of eternal love.  As it is said in Genesis: 

In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the waters.  And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said Let there be light, and there was light… Then God said, "Let Us make them in Our image, according to Our likeness;" (1.1-3,26)

What is crazy is that the outpouring of love did not end with creation. Some 2000 years ago we were given the ultimate performance of love through the suffering and death of Jesus. 

God lived out His love and for this we have a plethora to be thankful for. So what then is the meaning and foundation of thankfulness? In attempting to answer such a question we should seek to look further than the beautiful landscape we inhabit and truly grasp the underlining meaning of gratitude and thanksgiving.  For it is written that with the death of Christ, we were given the key to enter into God’s heavenly paradise.  We have been made heirs to the eternal riches of Christ through our relationship with Him - an inheritance that we are called to live out here and now - to live out the hope of tomorrow, today.   

I am thankful that the God loves us so insanely that He did not simply seek to create and then walk away. Nope. He created and loved so insanely that He chose to give His life away for us so that today every single one of us can celebrate the breath we just took in, we can celebrate the look of beauty in the eyes of the other, can give thanks for being the "beloved" of God. So instead of simply giving thanks, let us begin here and now to live out our thanksgiving word by loving and serving the "other!"