We Thank You, Lord

by the Rev. H. Julian Gordy
Bishop
ELCA-Southeastern Synod

Decatur, Georgia, native Roy Blount, Jr. recently said that Thanksgiving is the perfect mixture of excess and innocence. I thought about that last night during a Skype introduction to our newest grandson and reason for thanksgiving, Dade Aleksander Zanevskiy. Sasha, as he is called, is his parents’ first child, and he is at one time the most innocent and compelling seven pounds you will ever likely see and unbelievably, excessively demanding and unreasonable. He has turned his parents’ orderly lives upside down. He likes to eat every two hours throughout the night and then sleep all day. As innocent as he looks, Sasha, like all newborns, seems certain that the universe revolves around his needs at the moment.

In spite of birthing classes, books and conversations with family and friends, first time parents are rarely prepared for the radical change a baby brings about. From the moment the child is born, everything becomes challenging. First-time parents are almost universally overwhelmed by the demands of parenthood in the first few weeks. Going to the grocery requires the logistical equivalent of planning a small rock concert. Parents of newborns find out that it is possible to get by with little sleep and less personal time. Anything else that required as much time, energy, money and grief, we’d do anything to avoid. When my first child was born, I remember wondering how the human race had made it until now if this much work and distress was required for each new person. But most first-time parents, after memory fades a bit perhaps, are ready to welcome another little one into the family.

Jesus frequently used the relationship of parent and child to describe God’s relationship with us. It is a rich image. We humans, like newborns, have been demanding, selfish, complaining and uncomprehending throughout much of our history. And yet, like a first-time mother, God continues to look on us with a fierce and determined tenderness that can’t be explained by our behavior, but only by a parent’s love. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)

On Thanksgiving we remember all the good gifts God has given us. We usually remember them to excess and, like innocent newborns, are mostly unmindful that they are not of our deserving, but are signs of God’s love for us who are God’s children. No one has put the proper Thanksgiving spirit to words better than Matthias Claudius (1740-1815):

We thank you, our creator,

for all things bright and good,

the seedtime and the harvest,

our life, our health, our food.

No gifts have we to offer

for all your love imparts,

but what you most would treasure—

our humble, thankful hearts.

All good gifts around us

are sent from heav'n above.

We thank you, Lord,

we thank you, Lord,

for all your love.