Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I spent mine back home with the family - eating lots of turkey and dressing, catching up on some reading, watching a few old movies on TV, and mostly just enjoying life outside the big city of Huntsville.

Of course, Thanksgiving is first and foremost a time to give thanks to God for His many blessings, and beyond that, to remind ourselves of what it means to be genuinely thankful. Thanksgiving and thankfulness go hand-in-hand.

Telling God "thank you" by uttering something to the effect of "good bread, good meat, good God, let's eat" isn't quite enough. To say "thank you" is certainly polite, but it is still merely an expression of gratitude. It's what you do when a friend or family member gives you a gift - any gift - even if it's an ugly tie, a fruitcake, or a brand new set of bathroom scales. When it comes to gifts from God, though, there is no worry about whether they will fit us properly or whether we'll ever need them. Considering the source and nature of the gifts, it seems inadequate to simply include a polite "thank you" in one's prayers and leave it at that; instead, it seems that our expressions of thanks can achieve their full, genuine meaning only when we devote those gifts to the purposes God intended. Of course, since we are human, that's easier said than done. Aside from cooking the turkey, it may be the biggest challenge of Thanksgiving.

OK...now that I've ventured into religion, let's talk some politics. Ummmm...actually, it's late, so that'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Meanwhile, if you, too, have discovered the meaning of life and diagnosed all of the world's ills, please feel free to add your two cents in the comments section. If you're not up to that...then take on this topic: Compare/contrast the theme of man and his place in the universe as presented in The Matrix and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.