The Best Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my dear friends and family around the world!

Though the years my husband and I have been privileged to be world travelers by the grace of God, and we’ve discovered, of course in Israel, and also in places as far flung as the United Arab Emirates and Asia, that the American holiday of Thanksgiving is celebrated worldwide by Americans living abroad and by international hotels that offer a traditional turkey feast.

Photo above—giving thanks in Jerusalem during Sukkot, the model for our Thanksgiving Day. According to “Hebrew for Christians,” the American holiday of Thanksgiving, (chag ha'hodayah: חַג הַהוֹדָיָה) likely has its roots in the Jewish tradition of giving thanks to God, and some historians believe that the early Pilgrims in America actually derived the idea for the holiday from the Biblical festival of Sukkot (i.e., "the feast of Tabernacles"). Before fleeing to the “New World,” the Pilgrims lived for a decade among Sephardic Jews in Holland, which was considered a safe haven from religious persecution at the time (tragically not today!). Therefore it’s not surprising that these Pilgrims may have chosen the festival of Sukkot for their own celebration. The Hebrew word for “turkey” is tarnegol hodu (תַּרְנְגוֹל הוֹדו), literally, “Indian chicken,” often shortened to hodu (הוֹדוּ). This reminds us of the “thanks” connection: "Give thanks (hodu) to the Lord for he is good, for His love endures forever."

For me personally this is the best Thanksgiving ever.

Not only am I thankful first of all for my Lord and Saviour, My Healer and Redeemer through His merits, but I am especially thankful this year as we gather around our table for the healing of my precious husband after a major ordeal this past spring.

And also I rejoice for the American election. I am so grateful for the nation of my birth to have awakened to the dangers of woke-ism and globalism, and I’m happy for the Trump family to be able to celebrate today knowing that God has begun to vindicate them from pernicious political lawfare.

There are very few individuals like Trump with the strength and resources to be able to overcome the political machine, but there are others unlawfully incarcerated like Tina Peters—she’s a Gold Star mother languishing in jail because she, a Colorado county clerk, had tried to prove that voting machines were used to rig the 2020 election.

I saw a cute meme of a man marking days off a calendar and his wife asked, how many days to Christmas, but he was looking for how many days are left until January 20, Inauguration Day. The world at this moment is still a very dangerous place but we pause to give thanks for all the Sovereign God does in our individual lives and nations as we pray and trust him.

Psalm 100: Calls for joyful praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.

Psalm 67 was likely used at harvest festivals and opens with a form of the Aaronic blessing. Psalm rivals another as my very favorite psalm of praise and thanksgiving:

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

² That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

³ Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

⁴ O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

⁵ Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

⁶ Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.

⁷ God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

My reading this morning included Psalm 65: 7, “You stilled the roaring of the seas,
the pounding of their waves, and the tumult of the nations.” But I prefer the rendering of the Book of Common Prayer: “Who stilleth the raging of the sea, * and the noise of his waves, and the madness of the peoples. . . .”

HalleluYah!

Maranatha!

To contact Christine Darg, visit https://jerusalemchannel.tv/contact-2/