Hi First Presbyterian,

It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, and I wanted to take some time to reflect on gratitude with you today. It seems to me that one of the unofficial hymns of Thanksgiving Day is “Now Thank We All Our God.” Here are the lyrics of the first verse of that hymn:

Now thank we all our God
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

Martin Rinkart is the author of this well-known hymn, which he wrote in German in the seventeenth century. Catherine Winkworth translated the hymn into the familiar English version we know nearly 200 years later. I marvel at the creative gifts of people who can translate poetic words into a new language and retain theological and linguistic beauty. There is so much meaning packed into the verse above. Every time I sing this hymn, I always spend a moment thinking about the last line: “and still is ours today.” What or who is still ours today? I had thought for a long time that it was the “countless gifts of love,” but that doesn’t make sense grammatically. If that were the case, the last line would read “which still are ours today.” The only thing that makes sense grammatically is for “still is ours today” to refer back to “who” which refers to God. What a comforting thought! The God who made a world filled with “wondrous things” and who has blessed us throughout our lives is still our loving and gracious God today. God will never leave us nor forsake us. As you are reading this email right now, God is with you wherever you are! I encourage you to give thanks to God for God’s abiding presence in our lives this Thanksgiving. Like the words of the hymn suggest, try giving thanks:

With heart: Reflect on all the ways God has blessed you in your life.
With hands: Do something to show your gratitude to God. Donate to an organization doing God’s work. Feed the birds outside your home and care for God’s creation. Write an encouraging note or text to someone and care for God’s beloved children.
With voices: Say aloud, “Thank you, God, for always being with me.”

God is indeed with you, my friends. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pastor Neff