by Victor Chen

When we think of Thanksgiving, we can imagine a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting — a warm family with beaming smiles, eagerly gathered around a picturesque table as the father prepares to carve a delicious turkey. 

That becomes the standard for our Thanksgiving. That becomes the feeling we try to capture. That becomes the setting we try to recreate.

And we fall woefully short, year after year.

Expectation turns to disappointment. Anticipation turns to bitterness. Our families aren’t idyllic. Our homes turn out to be more cold than warm. Our situations don’t seem very happy at all.

But let’s reset and try to find Thanksgiving in the Bible. 

Picture the apostle Paul in prison, awaiting impending execution. Even if he was under house arrest, imagine the social stigma and the loneliness. 

There is no warm meal to be shared around the table. There are no friends or family to enjoy company with. 

And yet, it is here that we find Thanksgiving in the Bible. Not the American holiday to be celebrated (or dreaded) each year. But a true heart of thanksgiving that is not contingent on situation or close company. 

Thanksgiving in the Bible is not a holiday or a setting or even a feeling. 

Thanksgiving in the Bible is a matter of the heart and it comes supernaturally only through the Lord.

Every day, in every moment and in everything, I pray that we, like the apostle Paul, would be marked by this happy thanksgiving.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13 ESV)