Remember Your Blessings with Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just around the corner!  Although we may not be making the huge preparations, traveling, and gathering with many relatives and friends this holiday, we are perpetually reminded that thanksgiving is a time to remember our blessings and give our thanks to God.  Rev David Lose, one of the ELCA’s leading pastors, has written many times that saying, “Thank you,” is one of the secrets of true happiness. In fact, one of our spiritual disciplines at mealtime is to say a prayer of thankfulness for the food that is before us.  If a person eats three meals a day, then that is three times a day we get to express our thanksgiving to God.​

This year our Thanksgiving Eve worship service and dessert time will look different.  Since we are not gathering in person at church, how will we share our thankfulness and praise of God’s blessings?  This year, 10 Churches are coming together to remember and to give thanks to God for all the blessings we have received from God and from one another.  Working together in the midst of the pandemic is a lesson we are learning about unity.  Lord knows there are enough things that are trying to divide us. It is awe-some to think that when you combine the ELCA congregations in the Fox Valley, we are one of the largest churches!

Unity and working together for community at Thanksgiving, reminds us we are not alone, and we have much to give thanks to God for.  Join us for the service that brings us together – 10 churches, 14 clergy, 5 musicians or musical groups and a host of congregational people and guests who will participate in giving thanks to God’s for the blessing we receive daily and throughout the year.  I hope you will take time to worship and to thank God for the many blessings, including the people, that surround us. Not because God needs our expressions of thanks, but because in recognizing that we are blessed and giving thanks for those blessings, we are blessed yet again.
Happy Thanksgiving, Be Well & Be Safe – God Bless,
Pastor Nate