Happy Thanksgiving, my dear friends! I pray you and your family are able to gather together tomorrow to give thanks for another year of God's grace. In his now classic book For the Life of the World, the late priest and theologian Alexander Schmemann argues that in the very act of feasting, we’re testifying to something profound about the cosmos:

“Centuries of secularism have failed to transform eating into something strictly utilitarian. Food is still treated with reverence…To eat is still something more than to maintain bodily functions. People may not understand what that ‘something more’ is, but they nonetheless desire to celebrate it. They are still hungry and thirsty for sacramental life.”

This is God’s world; thus all of it--even the cranberry sauce and green bean casserole--teems with meaning and significance. To feast and give thanks is part and parcel of what it means to be alive. I’ve always been struck by my friend Peter Leithart’s description of what it means to be human, “I thank, therefore I am.” To be thankful is to be fully alive.

Once the gifts of food and feasting are seen as such, the Gift Giver will be found. And to find Him is to thank Him, and to thank Him is to truly find one’s own self. After all, does anyone feel more alive than when they’re eating, laughing, and praying with friends and family? No. So, this Thanksgiving might we all take, eat, and thank.

I hope you're able to join us Sunday as we, together, feast at the Table of the Lord and give Him thanks and praise!