Let’s get thankful

I read recently that one of the most favored secular Christmas songs, “Jingle Bells,” is actually a Thanksgiving song. If you sing it through, you’ll find no reference to Christmas. It was composed to be sung for a Thanksgiving program in 1857 at a Savannah, Ga., church. Today it’s recognized as one of the most popular songs in the world. Children and adults from around the world love to sing “Jingle Bells” and it all started in Georgia.

It also carries the distinction of being the first Christmas song to be broadcast from space in 1965 by astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra. Enough trivia, but maybe not so trivia when you think it’s a Thanksgiving song.

Celebrated the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving has retained its meaningful roots more than Christmas. Christmas has been hijacked by commercial interest so much that to talk and sing about the birth of a Savior has just about become politically and socially unacceptable. It’s about money not a Messiah.

I suppose that Wall Street and its attendant interests just can’t find a commercial and profitable center in Thanksgiving. So, it’s all about Halloween and then a jump to Christmas.

But you and I need to lift up this particular holiday. Thanksgiving, you see, is all about giving thanks to God. For what?

Try to visualize all the peoples of the world. Most of them don’t have hot and cold and clean water. Most of them don’t have the resources for three squares a day. Most of them don’t have a closet full of clothes that are too small to wear. Most of them are very poor and don’t know it. Most of them could not conceive the education system we complain about or the health care system we say is failing us. Most of them have never met a doctor of medicine or education.

Yet, here we sit in the lap of luxury and lament about all we don’t have — like a Lexus. Let’s get thankful for the small stuff first and then move on up to the big stuff. Let’s get thankful — really thankful — for the food we eat. Fast food has emptied us of genuine gratitude for our food. Living in the fast lane has denied us the thoughtfulness to be thankful.

So, stop a moment, even now, and dwell on the little things: food, shelter, clothing, medicine. Then, we can move up to the bigger things: love of a mother and father, freedom to worship, and even a chance to become president of the greatest country in the world.

But start now. Let’s get thankful. Even for bells that jingle and an opportunity to visit grandma’s house with turkey, pumpkin pie, and lots of and lots of football.