Reflection for Thursday, November 27, 2008: Thanksgiving Day.

Abstract

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation! It is from your goodness that we gather today in this United States of America to give you thanks and praise for the blessings you have showered upon us.||We thank you for this bountiful land - the plains, forests, mountains, rivers, lakes and deserts. We thank you for the people native to this land - for the lessons we have learned together. We thank you for the diversity of people you gathered to these shores from around the world. We thank you for our history - for the freedoms we cherish as well as for the scars that have challenged our integrity.|In the face of many challenges, amid forces that try to divide us, you keep blessing our desires for justice and unity. You have allowed us to offer hope for many in the world, you have blessed us to defend the cause of liberty and freedom.|We are sorry for the evil of slavery and for the ongoing sin of racism among us. We are sorry for the times we have been a cause of division in the world, for when our greed and our use of the world's resources has hurt the rest of the world, especially the poor.|We grieve that we have become a culture insensitive to the absolute dignity of every human life and that we continue to struggle to know how to protect the basic human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.|We trust in your mercy, O Lord, our God, and we ask you to renew us with hope and re-dedication to thanksgiving. May we grow in gratitude today for the many gifts you have given us - gifts beyond what most of the world can imagine. With our thanksgiving, we ask you to bless us with generosity, that we might welcome the stranger and care for those most in need, because you have been so good to us.|Allow us to be good stewards of the many gifts you have given us. Bless our families and loved ones. Bless our nation and the whole family of nations. We know you have given us gifts to allow us to make this nation greater and the world better, and so we thank you. Grant us greater understanding, solidarity, compassion, unity, justice and peace.|We make our thanksgiving and entrust our prayers to you, in the name of Jesus, who himself prayed that we may be one.|Amen.