Thanksgiving

"I am blessed because He was cursed."

Every year at thanksgiving, we gather around a table full of food to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. I will be the first to admit that I am not a great historian, so I am not going to go into the history of thanksgiving. I am going to say that every year going through the list of things I am thankful for seems more like a memorized list. I'm thankful for my family, the bible, having food, etc.

Today I was listening to a podcast titled The Cross of Christ and realized part of my problem. Besides the obvious (my sinful nature), the problem with this holiday is that it is about what we are thankful for and not necessarily Who we are thankful for. I could even say that this carries right on over to Christmas, especially since both holidays are seeming to run together anymore (tried to find a Thanksgiving decoration lately?).

The past week, I have been reading John 20:1-18. How is the empty tomb and Thanksgiving related, you might ask, okay, I am known for stating the obvious, so I will just spell it out. Without the empty tomb, there wouldn't be anything to be thankful for. Just imagine for a minute that the New Testament never happened. We would still be stuck under the law and doomed to hell. But, guess what? It happened! And we are blessed because Jesus was cursed. He took our punishment for the sins we have committed. And because of this, we get to know and be with God someday!

1 Timothy 3:16
Hebrews 2:9-18
Ephesians 4:17-24