NEWS BLOG (WSAU) For years we’ve heard stories about taking God out of Christmas. In a country where non-churchgoers outnumber the faithful, Christmas is more of a gift-giving holiday than a day with spiritual meaning. A sad development, but nothing new there.

If you’re not Christian, you’re free to celebrate Christmas any way you want. Obviously there are many people who do just fine putting up Christmas trees, wreaths and plastic Santas and being festive and generous for the day. I suppose if you raise a child without any spiritual guidance, they’d come to think of it as ‘the day when you get toys.’

In short, it’s become easy to take God out of Christmas.

It’s not as easy to separate God from Thanksgiving.

Here’s a day when we are supposed to take stock of the good things. We give thanks for them. I think almost all of us will spend at least moment thinking about the many blessings that we have – even in hard times.

That begs the question give thanks to whom?

It’s nonsense to give thanks to ourselves. We know that many of the things we’re thankful for aren’t determined by us. So should we give thanks to good fortune? I don’t think, even subconsciously, that’s what enters our head as we take account of the good things. You might be thankful for individuals in your life… thankful for children or a spouse. But you’re giving thanks for them, not to them. And most of those people are in our lives through random chance of the not-fully-explained miracle of birth.

You see what I’m getting at.

Even if we don’t realize it, we’re giving thanks to God. Where else did these blessings come from? Are we so shallow to just believe that we’re incredibly lucky? This Thanksgiving, even people who’ve lost their faith or aren’t part of an organized religion, should reflect on that.

Chris Conley
11.21.12