The greatest cause to be thankful

This time of year, everyone's thinking about Thanksgiving. Advertisements compete with each other, trying to tell us which store has the best turkeys and pumpkin pies. It's easy to forget the purpose of  Thanksgiving while we're trying to figure out how many relatives we can cram into one house. 

Our family has a wonderful tradition where we all say things for which we are thankful. Even great things, such as family and friends, are insignificant, compared to the new life that Christ has poured into me through his death and resurrection. I don't deserve that life. I deserve eternal condemnation. Ephesians 2:4-9 explains perfectly this great gift.

  "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

This season, I'm going to try to keep my thoughts on the greatest blessing of all time - the perfect Son of God taking on our guilt and paying the price that we could never pay. I am… redeemed.