This coming week, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day. Over the years, as worldliness and materialism have set in more and more on American society, people have forgotten the main reason for the holiday --- to thank God for His blessings and protection. Instead, out-of-town vacations, Black Friday Shopping, partying and feasting have been the main agenda for the four-day weekend.

Jesus knows how forgetful and ungrateful man can get so he highlighted this weakness in the parable of the ten lepers in Luke 17. In the story, Jesus healed 10 lepers but only one came back to thank Him. What do you think the other nine ex-lepers did? Knowing human nature, I believe they were so ecstatic to be well and whole again, that they ran as fast as they could to their family and friends and celebrated. They shopped for new clothes; they had a feast and partied all day and night. Much like what we do during Thanksgiving. I’m sure they were thankful to Jesus who healed them; it’s just that in their joy and excitement, they forgot to thank the One who made the reason for their joy possible.

It’s so natural for people to forget to say thanks. If you’re a parent, do you remember the countless times you needed to remind your child, “What do you say?” when somebody gave them something or did something good for them? But as we read Luke 17, notice that as the 10 le-pers went on their way tobe healed, Jesus never said, “Hey, what do you say?”

Isn’t it amazing to think that in spite of the fact that we often fail to stop and thank our God, yet He loves us so much that He keeps holding out His hand and showering us with gifts and blessing each and every day? Let’s make it a daily habit to count all the ways that God has blessed us and be grateful. And let us remember that the greatest gift is our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who deserves our eternal thanks.

Jesus knows we have a tendency to forget which is probably why, during the Last Supper, He told the apostles several times to remember Him. So, this Thanksgiving, amidst all the hurry and the flurry, let us not be like the 9 lepers who needed to be told, “What do you say?” Let us be remember God, give thanks, and offer our lives in grateful sacrifice.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bro Chito