“Franksgiving” and “infamous” Macy’s balloon incidents

NOTE: Two National Guard members are in critical condition this morning after being shot near the White House yesterday. I will respond in tomorrow’s Daily Article after more is known. Please join me in praying for them and for all involved in this tragedy.

Thanksgiving today is nearly as late in the year as it can be. Since Congress decreed in 1941 that the holiday be observed on the fourth Thursday in November, it can fall on the 28^th but no later.

If it seems that the day is too late this year, you could have celebrated “Franksgiving” instead.

In 1939, during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday in November to extend the Christmas shopping season. Half the states observed the new date, some calling it “Franksgiving,” while those in the other half stuck to the traditional last Thursday of the month.

Residents of Texas, Colorado, and Mississippi celebrated on both dates, so there’s that option as well.

The news is filled with other Thanksgiving trivia, from today’s average gathering size (seven) and caloric intake (3,150–4,500 calories), to holiday travel statistics, to facts about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (along with eight “infamous” balloon incidents), to “61 hot takes to fight about at Thanksgiving.”

The English words think and thank are both derived from an ancient Indo-European root tong, meaning to feel or think. As I think about my life and the world, I find abundant reasons for thanks.

I’d like to share three of them with you, each a simple fact inspired by a story in the news.

The universe is “past its prime”

According to astronomers, the universe is cooling down. Star formation peaked billions of years ago, so the universe is “past its prime,” though this slow fade will take tens of billions of years to unfold.

This news is not news to God: “He who forms the mountains and creates the wind, who declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lᴏʀᴅ, the God of hosts, is his name!” (Amos 4:13). Even more amazing, this God “formed my inward parts” and “knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).

The Creator made me in his image with no input from me. I had no agency at the time; if he had chosen not to make me, I would never have existed to know that I would not exist. The same is true for you.

You were created on purpose. Have you thanked your Father for this fact yet today?

Turkey pardons from Truman to Trump

ABC News published a slideshow of presidential turkey pardons, beginning with President Trump this week and extending back to President Truman in 1947. This tradition, however, goes back to 1863, when a live turkey was brought to the White House for Christmas dinner. Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad “interceded on behalf of its life,” according to a reporter, who added that Tad’s “plea was admitted and the turkey’s life spared.”

With all due respect to American history, you and I are that turkey. We were destined for spiritual death, but a greater Power pardoned us, choosing to spare us from the punishment that would otherwise have been his just response to our sins (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

Instead, our sins can be “blotted out” by his saving grace and our souls saved (Acts 3:19). The pastor and writer Paul Powell explained this promise:

In ancient days, paper was rare and expensive. It needed to be used again and again. The ink of that day had no acid in it. Therefore, it did not bite into the paper. It just lay on top of the page and dried. To erase it and make the paper usable again, one needed only to take a damp sponge and blot or wipe it across the page. Every trace of the dried ink was removed and the paper was as good as new. The word blotted describes that process of erasing. That’s what God promises to do with our sins.

You were created on purpose and pardoned on purpose. Have you thanked your Father for this fact yet today?

Supersonic jets and NFL games

Today’s NFL games will be played in Detroit and Dallas, as is tradition, along with a night game this year in Baltimore. But one day, that game along with many others might be played overseas. The NFL is closely watching the development of supersonic air travel. If such flights become a commercial reality, the league may place permanent teams or even an entire division in Europe.

I don’t need to wait for technology to advance to share the path to eternal life with billions around the world. Every person within reach of the internet is within reach of my witness and yours, not to mention the family and friends we will influence directly today and every day to come.

The New England pastor Justin Kendrick stated, “I’ve come to believe that this truth of the gospel is the most important identity-defining, life-altering truth in the universe.” It is an inestimable privilege to share it with the world, one soul at a time.

You were created on purpose and pardoned on purpose for an eternal purpose. Have you thanked your Father for this fact yet today?

Turning a holiday into a holy day

I’ve noticed that the more essential my blessings, the more I tend to take them for granted. As the novelist Cynthia Ozick noted, “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”

For instance, without gravity, life on this planet would be impossible. Without a sun in the sky, we would soon freeze. Without air to breathe, we would quickly die. Each is a gift we cannot create but only receive. But when last were you grateful for any of them?

It can be the same with the blessings of God we’ve named today. Physical life, eternal life, and the joy of sharing eternal life with the world—each is our Father’s unmerited favor to us. Don’t let their familiarity dull their significance. Or the grace by which they are yours.

Tim Keller was right:

“It’s one thing to be grateful. It’s another to give thanks. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do.”

What will you “do” today to turn this holiday into a holy day?

Quote for the day:

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” —John F. Kennedy

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