I always loved sharing this Bible story with the kids at church around Thanksgiving time. It's the story of the 10 Lepers. As Jesus was going into a village, he was met by ten men who had leprosy. Leprosy is an extremely contagious skin disease. Back in Bible times if you had this disease, you were sent away to a Leprosy Camp where you had to live with people who all had this same dreaded disease. As these ten men saw Jesus, from a far distance they called out to Jesus in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us." Jesus then told them to go and show yourselves to the priests." All ten went to the priests and all ten were cleansed and healed! Only one out of the ten returned to Jesus to give him thanks and praise as he threw himself at Jesus feet. Jesus asked that same man, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?" Jesus then looked at the one man who gave him praise and told him, "Rise and go, your faith has made you well."
In working in the food industry for several years, I can tell you that I rarely hear the words "Thank you" from people. I hear "Give me" and "I want" and even after I tell people to have a nice day, they will either say "Okay" or mumble "Hmm Hmm." No "Thank you" is a part of their everyday vocabulary. Don't get me wrong, I do hear "Thank you" on occasion and there are nice people in this world. I am always shocked how ungrateful people are. It seems as though a spirit of entitlement has slammed into America unfortunately.
I have been to third world countries on mission trips. I have been in homes where the place you go to the bathroom is a hole in the ground. I have seen homes in Mexico where they have holes in their roof and dirt floors. No hardwood or carpeted floors in their homes. I went to one church service where the seats were planks of wood, the worship leader played his guitar, and it was missing strings, and the drummer played his drum set that had holes in them. The church service was out in the open air and if it rained, they didn't care because they were happy to be giving God thanks and praise. When you look around America, you see spoiled people who throw food away at home and at restaurants, who complain they have no Wi-Fi service on their laptops and phones, and who disrespect authority and have no guilt doing it. What ever happened to being grateful? Whatever happened to giving thanks to God? What ever happened to telling God you are thankful for the roof over your head or the clothes you wear and the food He provides for you?
I get very annoyed when I see Christmas decorations on display at retail stores IN OCTOBER! Next to the Halloween decorations you see Buddy the Elf and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer items all on display in October? This was in our local Walmart. It seems as though here in America we want to skip Thanksgiving, a day we give thanks to God, and we shoot right to Christmas where we preach about peace, joy, love, a lot of presents and that old "Spirit of Christmas." How about we all have a heart of thanks not just at Thanksgiving time but every single day? When we all sit at our Thanksgiving tables to eat turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and "all the fixings," We need to be thankful and to remember that clear across our world there are millions of people who don't have what we have been blessed with. We can't be like the nine lepers who were healed and never thanked Jesus for cleansing hem. We need to be that one who did thank Jesus. He was cleansed and he was very thankful. Let's be the thankful one not just on Thanksgiving Day 2025 but every day! I Thessalonians 5:18 tells us in the Bible, " give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Let's have a thankful and grateful heart always!
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