In Sunday School class, a student was asked, "Who has given you all these things that you have, such as clothes, shoes, and your name?" The student replied, "My mom gave me." The teacher asked again, "Who did make your beautiful eyes, nose, mouth and ears?' The student said, "I don't know." "Did you make anything that you have now?" The student said, "No, I didn't do anything!" For children, almost everything has been given to them. So they are happy and give thanks to their parents who have provided all that they need.
Unlike children, adults easily think that they have earned all things. They use to say, "I've bought this, material things. I've got a job, work place. I've done that, ability to do. And I want to be or do something, the future plan." In the Bible, the Parable of the Rich Fool, "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'I will do this; I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grains and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'" (Luke 12:16b-20).
Of course Jesus did not criticize the person's hard work for his comfortable life. He simply pointed out that the Rich Fool started all his sayings with I, "I will...." In our society, which has been highly influenced by individualism and the individual's freedoms and rights, it seems there is nothing wrong with having a strong sense of I-centred identity. But a big problem is that if we, people, keep on insisting on the first person singular pronouns; "I, Me, My, Mine," it is very hard to recognize other pronouns, the second person, "You" and third, "She, He, They" and "We" as well. "I" cannot become "I" by itself. There are always many causes that make "I" become "I" in birth, growth, work, family, and even death. It means that somebody had done or helped and something happened for you and I before becoming who we are and what we have now. And it is and will continuously be done and happening as long as we are on the earth.
It is a time of thanksgiving. Children can easily accept their gifts and appreciate it. They enjoy and are glad with what they have. How about us? We adults should also be like our children who express their thankful minds naturally and spontaneously, for we all are the children of God.
Everything and anything that we have now actually has come from somewhere and been made by somebody. Although some might think they have made something by themself, the raw materials and the work environments were provided for them to do so. No matter how we justify with what we have, many good things have come from others and given to us. So we have to say thank you for those things to somebody. Thanksgiving Day is a good opportunity to change our focus from thanks-receiving to thanks-giving to others, especially to God who is the giver of all good things, the proto- cause of every good things.
