Thanking By Giving

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

2 Corinthians 9:11, NIV

This is the month when Americans pause to give thanks for their blessings. While we normally think of Christmas as the holiday for giving, perhaps Thanksgiving is a time to give as well. At the first “Thanksgiving” feast held by the Plymouth colony in 1621, the members expressed their thanks by inviting the native Wampanoag people who helped them survive their first winter.

Giving to others is a good way to express thanks to God. Paul tells the Macedonian Christians as much when he writes that God’s blessing to them would allow them to be generous to others, which would result in “thanksgiving to God.” In Romans 15:28, Paul calls the Macedonians’ financial gifts “fruit,” meaning they were a result of their relationship to Jesus Christ (John 15:1-8). When they gave to others, it was because of what God, through Christ, had given to them. This Thanksgiving might be a good opportunity to join the Plymouth and Macedonian Christians by sharing with others.

Look around—who do you see with a need you could meet? Or who could you bless with an unexpected gift?

No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.

ST. AMBROSE