Gratitude without God?

When Congress passed legislation making Thanksgiving an official holiday, was it an attempt to codify feelings, i.e., ‘you must be thankful?’ No. Congress was only affirming thankfulness as a national core value, an expression of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.

Does that mean non-Christians can’t be thankful? Well, of course not. But last century’s paradigm shift from a God-centered worldview to a man-centered one has secularized Thanksgiving far beyond a Pilgrim’s paradigm. The Pilgrims who celebrated that first Thanksgiving believed everything they had came from God, a gratitude built on a foundation of belief in God's Providence.

Of course the ungodly can be thankful. But unlike them, hopefully, you and I are like the original pilgrims who knew they were on a journey to something/someplace far greater than the things of this world. Thus, while our gratitude is rooted in the eternal, the natural man knows only situation and luck. Jonathon Edwards says “true gratitude or thankfulness … arises from a foundation of love to God whereas a natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation.” Let us be thankful for what we have. But let us be more grateful for what awaits us.