Celebrating a Simple and Uncluttered Holiday

Celebrating a Simple and Uncluttered Holiday

Posted on by Michele Morin

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love its simplicity and its uncluttered focus: Gather and give thanks! That’s it! No cards or gifts, and no expectation of a big program at church.

For the believer, Thanksgiving is a wake-up call to a God-conscious mindset, so I view these days leading up to the holiday as a gratitude reset button. I’ve been working my way through Praying with the Psalms by Eugene Peterson this year, and was surprised at how often thanksgiving comes up in the Psalms. In the ESV, the specific word thanksgiving is used nine times.

It appears in Psalm 116 as a love letter to the Lord, enumerating his many gifts to the psalmist:
His listening ear
His attentive heart
His faithful deliverance
His lavish generosity

With a heart full of praise, the writer asks a most reasonable question:

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?” (Psalm 116:12)

The utter completeness of God’s provision of salvation means there’s nothing left for me to do, no “work” required to reimburse or deserve God’s favor. However, I need not be a passive recipient. I can always give thanks:

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 116:17)

So when the psalmist writes, “Lift up the cup of salvation,” I’m reading that as a reminder to celebrate God’s goodness and to give thanks, raising my glass of cider and preparing a festive meal in honor of the God whose lavish gifts make this life liveable and the next life possible. May obedience and praise come together in a perfect fusion of Thanksgiving to the Lord who has dealt so bountifully with us!

Holding You in the Light,

The utter completeness of God’s provision of salvation means there’s nothing left for me to do, no “work” required to reimburse or deserve God’s favor. However, I need not be a passive recipient. I can always give thanks.

Prepare for Thanksgiving with this New YouVersion Devotional!

I’ve got a new devotional plan ready for you on the YouVersion app just in time for Thanksgiving. Click HERE to start this five-day plan. I pray it will prepare your heart for this glorious season of gratitude. (There’s a good reason why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.)

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Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four married sons and a growing fleet of adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

22 thoughts on “Celebrating a Simple and Uncluttered Holiday”

  1. I’ve always loved Thanksgiving too for the same reasons. As we have grown in numbers we have had to be more flexible with The Day we do our thing. This year it is today. Happy Thanksgiving to your crew!

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    1. Flexibility is SO crucial when the kids get married and the family population explodes. I think it’s rich that as our bodies become less flexible, we find the need to bend our whims of iron to the preferences of our loved ones. God really knew what he was doing when he invented families.

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  2. Described it perfectly “simplicity and its uncluttered focus: Gather and give thanks!”
    And “The utter completeness of God’s provision of salvation means there’s nothing left for me to do, no “work” required to reimburse or deserve God’s favor. However, I need not be a passive recipient. I can always give thanks”
    ~ Rosie

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  3. I think the simplicity is one of the reasons why Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for years now! It doesn’t hurt that I do like to eat and cook and bake too.

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  8. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for the same reasons – family, fellowship, food, and expressing gratitude to God for all of it. For all the many good gifts and blessings God has given us, we should be constantly praising him, and yet I forget or take things for granted. And need to refocus myself on just how good he is to me. Happy Thanksgiving!

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    1. I love your use of the term “refocus.”
      Our camera lens is usually zoomed right in on ourselves and our expectations. How wonderful that Thanksgiving season encourages us to pan out over the landscape of God’s lavish generosity!

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  9. You are so right about flexibility (in your comment to April above) as the children get married and in-law relationships must be taken into consideration. Sometimes distance interferes and even illness. My husband and I will celebrate Thanksgiving with just the two of us this year as each of these factors impact our three children and their families. BUT! We’ve done this before and there’s much to be said for the simplest and most uncluttered holiday possible–no big meal to prepare, no pile of dishes and leftovers to clean up afterwards. We’re going out to eat! And with decades of memories to draw from, we can reminisce all the ways God has been faithful to our family and give enthusiastic thanks and praise to him. We’ll also anticipate Christmas when we will be all be together–for five days!

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