Is Thanksgiving a holiday which still should be celebrated at all? We are living in a more or less global society. More and more people live in big cities and not in rural areas. In Europe we produce far too much food, and much of it is being thrown away. When in any place of the world harvest is not good, then we import food from somewhere else. So what should we be thankful for, and to whom?

"Why should we pray before eating, and thank God for the food?" a child asked me once. "Dad earns the money, he gives it to Mum, she buys the food and prepares it. All this has not got anything to do with God." Is that correct?

We are really independent. Even if somebody gets sick or looses his job, then we still have our social welfare which helps. All shops are always full of food.

So should we perhaps abolish that thanksgiving holiday because in our modern society it does not make sense any longer?

Let’s have a look at those people who feel so secure and live without God. They are striving and working hard, they are planning, and caring, and preventing, and considering every single possibility.

As long as everything is running fine, that is great. But what happens when something is going wrong? Then big troubles are coming, then they don’t stop thinking and have sleepless nights.

Christians are a lot better off there. Jesus says in Mathew 6, Verses 31 – 33

Do not ask anxiously, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What shall we wear?" all these are things for the heathen to run after, not for you, because your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well.

God in his never ending grace wants to take care of us. We just have to give permission.

Those who have experienced this, those that personally believe in God, know that they may sleep calmly when passing all problems onto God. They feel well and cared for, because they are in the best hands of all.

As God is caring for us in such a tremendous way, then it also makes sense to say thank you to Him.

A peasant has to work hard in his fields. Yet then God makes the wheat grow, and it is his decision alone whether the harvest will be good or not. In the end the same applies to all kinds of jobs.

So for us modern people thanksgiving is a lot more than saying thank you for a good harvest. We may also thank God for our jobs or for school. So, as God is granting us such a lot, and as saying "thank you" once a year only is not much really, it does make sense to thank him every day. Especially the beginning of a meal may be a moment of calmness and an occasion to be grateful.