Thanksgiving – the fruits of faith – Sunday, November 21, 1954
In its own way, Thanksgiving is the evidence of the fruition of faith. It is, in fact, “the substance of things hoped for”2—the symbol of the harvest that follows faith—with the fruits of the field before us, the things that give us sustenance, the rich, the bounteous blessings which are ours, by the goodness of God, because someone had the faith to plow and to plant and because God gave the increase.
So now we have our harvest. And so much else we have also: life itself, for which each morning gratefully we should thank God as we wake to the wonder of a new day and know that there is yet a little time to do some things we should have done, time yet to move once more among the beloved, familiar places and people that we sometimes see with unseeing eyes—and sometimes take too much for granted.
When we see a photograph of something familiar, we sometimes see something we haven’t seen in the thing itself. Or when we see through the eyes of an artist—a painting, perhaps, of something we have come to consider as commonplace—we find that the artist has found for us something we couldn’t see for ourselves. And at this thoughtful season we well could turn our eyes to see many cherished things as if we hadn’t seen them—to see, as if first seen, the goodness of all that God has given: life, our loved ones, food, work, and such surpassing blessings as freedom (which is not so common as some of us might have supposed), and the simple, wonderful, solid, sustaining things—with life to enjoy them, with loved ones and friends to share them, with freedom to use them, with grateful hearts to acknowledge them.
Yes, Thanksgiving is the evidence of faith, and of the goodness of God, and of the blessing of willing work. God give us the good sense to step aside and see some things as if we had never really seen them and give us the kind of gratitude that could never become bored with our blessings—and give us the grace to acknowledge humbly our dependence upon Providence, for “in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things . . . .”1
Among the greater qualities of character, among men and before God, is the great gift of gratitude.
1Heb. 11:1.
2Doctrine & Covenants, 59:21.
_____________________________________
November 21, 1954
Broadcast Number 1,317