Thankful I’m Not a Turkey…

Aren’t you thankful you’re not a turkey living (for the moment!) on a turkey farm? Fortunately for them, I suppose, they’re clueless of their fate.

Ever played the imagination game “What If…?” Ask yourself a series of questions and imagine the answers. Questions like:

• “What if I were born in the 11^th century…in the Americas…in western Europe…in Asia…in central Africa?”

• “What if I were a baby in colonial America? Would I survive to adulthood?”

• “What if I were a parent in that same time? How many of my children would survive?” Incidentally, just last week I read about Cotton Mather, the puritan colonist from the late 1600s-early 1700s. He had three wives over his lifetime. The first died of breast cancer after 16 years of marriage. The second died in the smallpox epidemic of 1713. Between the three wives, he had fifteen children. Only two outlived him. What would that have been like?

• “What if I lived in a third-world country like South Sudan or Rwanda or Haiti?”

There can be some great personal benefit to such an exercise, if it leaves you with a deep sense of gratitude.

Needless to say, we can’t get a real feel for life in the Middle Ages or Colonial America. We’ve all seen movies or dramas set in such times, but they’re rather sanitized of the true harshness of life. Besides, the historical distance is simply a challenge too great to overcome. That era is so radically different from our own, we have a difficult time putting ourselves in it. For example, can you get your mind around having fifteen children and then losing thirteen of them to disease or calamity before you die? That’s unheard of in 21^st century United States of America!

But we can get a taste of a life much different than in our typical American setting.

I haven’t traveled abroad much. Other than visiting Canada, Chris and I have been to Singapore, Malaysia, and Costa Rica on missions trips.

Singapore, of course, is a very modern island-city-nation in Southeast Asia. In terms of quality of life, there are similarities with middle-class living in the USA. Nonetheless, I found many reasons to be grateful God gave me life in this country.

Take schooling, for example. Children and young people are under tremendous pressure to succeed academically. By the time they reach a certain grade level—comparable to a high school freshman in our school district, I believe—students receive a sort-of achievement test. The outcome of that test determines whether they are placed on a “trades” path or an “academic” path. The academic track, of course, holds out more promise for higher paying jobs. So, because every parent wants what’s best for their children, from early childhood academic pressure is applied. Heavily.

I’m grateful I was encouraged to do well in school, but never had the threat of my adult-life career hanging over my head in 8^th grade.

And housing. I live in a single-family home on a decent-sized lot within city limits. If I lived in Singapore, most likely I’d live in an apartment in a high-rise building. I would have purchased the apartment from the government. And though it might be relatively nice and modern, there’s no green space. No yard for the kids to play in.

I’m grateful for space…a yard…a view of trees and plants and birds outside my window.

When you cross the bridge from Singapore into Malaysia, it’s like traveling from the Magnificent Mile in Chicago to one of the—shall we say—less desirable neighborhoods. The buildings are less aesthetically appealing, more are run-down and dirty. The streets and roadways aren’t as well maintained. Typical housing falls far below middle-class American standards.

There were none.

The time in Malaysia left me grateful not only for our housing, but for good roads (yes, even with our Illinois potholes!), clean restaurants, appealing architectural designs, and American bathrooms. If you’re wondering about the last item, follow this link (but you may not want to!).

Now lest I be misunderstood, I’m really grateful for the experience of visiting both of those countries. We met great people, learned much about their culture, and truly enjoyed the time there. But I’m more grateful I live where I do.

Same with our trip to Costa Rica in 2019. It’s a beautiful country, a wonderful place to visit. And I’ve watched enough House Hunters to know that some Americans are eager to leave the states and take up residence there.

I’ll pass.

No doubt, I’ve been spoiled by enjoying the quality of life offered here. Growing up in this environment, it’s easy to take things for granted. If you’ve never visited a place like Costa Rica, stayed in a downtown local hotel, walked the streets, shopped in a grocery store, you may not get it. On the other hand, if you have had the experience, you don’t take so much for granted anymore. You find your gratitude level increases dramatically.

Well, all of this has focused on this-life stuff, hasn’t it. That’s appropriate, to an extent. We live in this world and most of us have an abundance of things for which to be thankful. But even if I didn’t have such abundance, if I lived in a rural village in Malaysia or in a cramped high-rise in Singapore or in a cobbled-together shack in the Costa Rican interior, I can still be grateful.

In fact, Paul suggests, “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” (1 Timothy 6:8)

But let’s not be so narrowly focused on this-life stuff and expand our bases for gratitude.

Turning to the Bible’s Old Testament, thanksgiving was a huge part of life for God’s people who knew absolutely nothing of our taken-for-granted conveniences. And yet they were exhorted to give thanks. Even given instructions on how to offer “thank offerings.” While they were certainly thankful for the harvest and daily sustenance, much of their thanksgiving centered on the spiritual privileges they enjoyed. Just the Old Testament hymnal, the Psalms, uses “thanks” 45 times, mostly referring to the spiritual blessings enjoyed by God’s people.

The emphasis continues in the New Testament as well. In his writings alone, the Apostle Paul gives thanks more than 35 times, often expressing gratitude to God for how He’s worked in the lives of people, bringing them to faith in Christ Jesus. And for other things, too. Let’s just list some of them:

“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…” (Ephesians 1:16)

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17)

“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

“…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 )

“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord…” (1 Timothy 1:12)

As a matter of emphasis in the letters he writes to the various churches, Paul almost always, somewhere, gives thanks for the people themselves (as in Ephesians 1:16 above).

Think about this as you celebrate Thanksgiving. In addition to giving thanks for all the physical, material benefits, for whom will you give thanks? And here’s a thought. Let them know it.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!