Give Thanks!

                               A Note From The Pastor 

          “Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days
                after you have gathered the produce of your
                 threshing floor……Be joyful at your Feast.”
                                 (Deuteronomy 16:13ff)

Sometimes we think we came up with ideas in our time. Thanksgiving has been a national holiday here in the United States since the 17th century. But, at nearly the same time, Canada established a holiday for giving thanks. (It’s celebrated in October.)

The Netherlands and Liberia are among other countries that celebrate days of Thanksgiving as national holidays. During the Reformation in Henry the VIII’s reign, there were days established by the church for giving thanks.

But we can go even farther back! Our Judeo-Christian heritage has times of celebration that are recorded in the laws. The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot is one that is a time of giving thanks to God for the harvest. And it’s been around for a long time.

We need to give thanks. It is a part of our faith heritage. It helps us to focus on the goodness of God. And our ancestors in faith understood that.

We need to give thanks to God. God has been with us in the past, is with us now, and will be with us in the future. And we need to give thanks for that!

So, as we celebrate the holiday here this month, let’s remember that we need to give thanks. It’s even a part of our laws of faith!                                                         
                                                              Pastor Nancy

(By the way, our children have decorated a Sukka in their Sunday School classroom. If you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to go down the hall and take a look.)