Thanksgiving

In my last course, a participant made a fascinating suggestion for a panorama for Thanksgiving. If you want to know what a panorama is, take a look at the current manual pages 24-26. Important, the page numbers change as I regularly work on my manual, just check the table of contents. Now back to this participant. She shows us that God makes it possible for us to return to fellowship with Him through Jesus Christ, not through our good deeds. Her goal: „To know and live a heart full of gratitude, remembering that all blessings are a gift from God.“ So she has created a panorama or summary of the following texts that is good to use at Thanksgiving.

Creation, Genesis 1-2,

Noah after the Flood, Genesis 7

Joseph, Genesis 47

Miriam's song of praise after the liberation from the Egyptians through the parting of the Red Sea, Exodus 15,

Daniel thanks God despite prohibition, Daniel 6

Mary's song of praise, Luke 1:46-49

Jesus gives thanks in the midst of his grief and before a miracle, Matthew 14:19

Jesus gives thanks before he raises the dead, John 11:41.42

Jesus gives thanks before he is crucified, Luke 22:17-19

Ten lepers are healed, one gives thanks, Luke 17:11-19

When you tell this story to Muslims, please use the following names:

Noah: Nuh

Joseph: Jusup

Egypt: Misir or Misr

Miriam, the sister of Moses: Maryam, the sister of Musa

Daniel: Danyal

Mary, the mother of Jesus: Maryam, the mother of Isa

Jesus: Isa

John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin: Yahya (pronounced Jachia)

This is the participant's suggestion:

In the beginning was the Almighty who created everything and saw that it was good. After he had finished creating he rested and set a pattern for us to rest and reflect on the good things God has given us. Unfortunately, humans did not always trust Him, and they turned from trusting Him and being thankful and disobeyed His commands. This separated man from God, yet God still pursued and loved His people. People continued to not follow God, and their disobedience became so bad, that God decided to set a great flood to kill the people He created. One man, Noah, still followed God, and God saved him and his family on a large boat. After the flood, Noah gave thanks to God. As Noah and his sons began to have descendants, many continued to not follow God, but a few followed God and gave thanks to Him seeing that all they had was a gift from God. Joseph had eleven brothers who hated him. They sold him to traders in a far away land, and he ended up in some very hard circumstances. When a famine hit the land, Joseph ended up saving his family from death. He thanked God for his terrible circumstances knowing that though his brother wronged him, God used these circumstances for good. Many years later, God’s people were slaves in Egypt when God delivered them into freedom. This included a great miracle of God moving the waters of a large sea, so the people could walk across on dry land. After they had crossed the sea, Mariam, the sister of Moses gave thanks to God for saving them. Many many years later, God’s people were again in captivity, and their captures made a law forbidding praying to anyone but the king. One man, Daniel, decided that giving thanks to God was worth whatever may happen to him for breaking the law, so he continued to pray and give thanks. Daniel was thrown into a den of lions, but God saved him from being eaten. This led to the king to write a new law saying that the people should give thanks to the God of Daniel. Yet again many years later, a different Mariam, the mother of Jesus found herself pregnant though she had never slept with a man. She knew, that she is a virgin. An angel told her that God had placed a child within her, and she was to call this child Jesus. She gave thanks to God even though she did not completely understand. Jesus became an example of thankfulness to God. When his cousin, John the Baptist had been killed and he was grieving, a crowd of 5,000 men plus women and children was gathered around him, and there was nothing to eat except five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus gave thanks to God for the food then began to break them. Everyone was full after they ate, and there were twelve baskets of food leftover. Later a good friend of Jesus died, and Jesus went to visit the family. He then gave thanks to God that God always hears him. Jesus then tells his friend, who was already buried, to come out of the grave. His friend was alive! Now, many people did not like that Jesus was teaching people, doing miracles, and even raising the dead, so some people were plotting to kill him. Jesus knew that one of his closest friends had betrayed him. When Jesus sat down for a special meal with his closest friends, he knew it was the last meal he would eat with his friends, including the one who betrayed him, but Jesus again thanked God for the meal. Soon after Jesus was taken by the authorities and killed. He didn’t stay dead though, in three days, God raised Him from the dead. Now those who believe have so much to be thankful for that Jesus is not dead but lives. Before Jesus’s death and resurrection, he met ten men with a terrible skin condition. He told them to go show themselves to the person who could give them a clean bill of health. On the way, they were healed! One of them turned back to thank Jesus. The others did not. I want to be like this one man who turned back to thank Jesus and the other examples of people who thanked God. I have so much to be thankful for. I am most grateful that Jesus obediently trusted God and died and rose again. What are you thankful for? How will you respond in gratitude to what God has done for you?

Many thanks to the participant!

The photos are from https://www.freebibleimages.org, a free super resource for Bible photos or drawings.