Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Exodus 12:26-27 And when your children ask you, "What does this ceremony mean to you?" then tell them, "It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians."
THANKSGIVING: A MEAL FOR REMEMBERING
Passover was truly a meal made for remembering -- remembering how God redeemed Israel of old from bitter slavery. The remembering was, of course, for a purpose: That the LORD be thanked for His redeeming love.
A typical Thanksgiving dinner in our tradition can also be a meal for remembering. As the foods at the Passover table were reminders for Israel of God's wondrous acts on their behalf, we can use the food on our Thanksgiving tables to remind us of God's wondrous works on our behalf.
Some food can remind us of Biblical events full of Thanksgiving thoughts.
Consider the turkey and dressing common to most of our Thanksgiving tables. The turkey can remind us of the birds God used to feed ancient Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. Yes, quail are much smaller, but they are still birds God has created for us to eat. The dressing on our plates can remind us of the manna God daily provided for Israel in the wilderness. Like bread, which is the major ingredient in dressing, manna was extremely versatile in its use.
Now, just as there are big differences between the first American Thanksgiving and our Thanksgiving celebrations today, there are surely big differences between Israel's food in the desert and the bread and meat we eat today. Perhaps the biggest is how it reaches our table. We do not wake each day to find bread on the front lawn nor do turkeys come gobbling into the backyard around sunset just in time for supper.
And yet no matter how our food comes to us, it comes from God whether frozen or fresh; whether canned or bottled; whether from our own gardens or from large farms; whether local or shipped halfway around the world; whether prepared with a special recipe or simply heated in the microwave. The food that we eat on Thanksgiving day or any other comes from the gracious hand of our loving Lord, just as surely as the quail and manna in the Sinai.
It is also true that we are no less reliant on God for our food than ancient Israel was in the wilderness.
