I have had so many great blessings to be grateful for: my wife who I don’t deserve, my two beautiful daughters, and a grandson who is well past his nine years of chronological age. Let me add to this list my fantastic late parents, an amazing brother and sister, close friends who I consider family, and many others who I consider extended family.

Another blessing I am grateful for is living in the greatest nation on earth that not only gives religious freedom to worship God without government interference, but also the freedom and opportunity to strive to fulfill our calling .

It is sobering that our ancestors recognized the need for our nation to establish a special day of thanksgiving to God. George Washington declared a unique proclamation to have our nation’s first Thanksgiving on November 26, 1789.

He said: “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to recognize the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his blessings and to humbly implore his protection and favor …”.

Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as an annual Thanksgiving Day to help unite the nation after the Civil War. May we do the same to make this a special Thanksgiving aimed at bringing our nation together after many political divisions.

I am grateful to our ancestors for striving for unity and declaring a day to remind us to always give thanks.

Personally, God has graciously blessed me with an extended life with reasonable health far beyond what most of my doctors predicted. Even though I was close to death once or twice, the most important thing I valued was letting those I love know how much I love and care about them.

I encourage you to not let divisive issues or your pride stop you from expressing how much you care about the people you love.

I continue to have the privilege and responsibility before God to live in harmony with others, always wanting what is best for them – and to glorify Him in doing so. The best thing for everyone is to have a personal relationship with God, their creator, who promises eternal and happy life to those who are reconciled to him through Christ.

The Thanksgiving holiday, most importantly, reminds me to thank God for giving me a part of himself in his son, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect, sinless life as an example for us. Not only did he sacrifice himself to be brutally crucified on a Roman cross, but, on that cross, he paid the price for all my – and your – sins. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we can have God’s righteousness and one day live in His heavenly kingdom in unimaginable happiness forever if we have trusted Him as our Savior and Lord.

It seems so simple, but many do not understand the truth, just like the religious and right-thinking Pharisees of Christ’s day who were always trying to earn their own way to Heaven. They, and many others today, stumble upon the stumbling block mentioned in Romans 9:32-33. They do not understand the truth described in Ephesians 2:8-10:

“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—and not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. »

Jesus gets and deserves all the credit and glory for our salvation when we trust Him.

It saddens me greatly that some people I care deeply about, and so many others on the day of judgment, boast about all they have done for God and thus deserve to enter heaven. Yet Jesus will simply tell them that he never knew them (Matthew 7:21-23). God has good works to do for us, but these are only the evidence of our salvation, not the cause of our salvation.

Being part of God’s family, based on what Jesus did for us, is the best reason to give thanks not only on Thanksgiving Day, but for every day God has given us on this earth.

Lee Walter is Sunday school superintendent at Columbia Bible Church in Kennewick and vice president of the Tri-Cities Child Evangelism Fellowship. Questions and comments should be directed to Editor Lucy Luginbill, newsroom manager at the Tri-City Herald, 4253 W. 24th Avenue, Kennewick, WA 99338. Or email [email protected] .