As I am sure many of my readers will be flying today or tomorrow to see loved ones for Thanksgiving, I thought I would wish you all a great holiday. I wish we had adopted your Thanksgiving rather than Halloween. Somehow our irregular harvest festival—which these days is only celebrated in more traditional churches and doesn't even have a single agreed upon date—doesn't seem right. In this age of Wal*Mart (yes, we have them too, now!) our food comes to us having spent months in a CO2-rich environment and there is no longer an "off season" for most vegetables. So we can often forget how reliant we are on the harvest. We need to learn to remember—having a special holiday like you do is a good thing!

I give thanks to our God for allowing us to live in countries where no child dies from drinking contaminated water. Elsewhere thousands a day do. I thank God that in these countries, none of us will die because we cannot have a home or have no money to eat. I thank God that we live in relative peace and security, and freedom of religion—including the right to preach the Gospel. And, as I do, I cannot help but think of my readers who live in countries less fortunate than the UK and America (where the vast majority of those who visit this blog come from). In the last year, I have had more than 20 visitors from each of the following countries of whom (as far as I know) at least one of those things could not be said—this Thanksgiving spare a moment's thought for these nations: Singapore, South Africa, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Russian Federation, Japan, China, Brazil, Poland, Senegal, Hong Kong, Mexico, Thailand, Romania, Taiwan, Nigeria, Turkey, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Croatia, Chile, Kenya, Indonesia, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Hungary, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Egypt, Vietnam, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, Slovakia, Jamaica, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Iran, Aruba, Zimbabwe, Kuwait, Puerto Rico, Yugoslavia, Morocco, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Belarus, Lithuania, Venezuela, Cyprus, Slovenia, Bahamas, Estonia.

Somehow, knowing that my blog is read in those off-the-beaten-tracks places thrills me. I suspect that we could learn much from people in each of these countries. If you are a regular reader from outside the UK or the US, I would love to hear from you by email and offer a specific prayer for you this holiday season. Somehow, for those of us in richer countries, life begins to feel like a right to us. Those who have most to be grateful for sadly often are least thankful. Our complicated lives crowd out our appreciation of the blessing it is to be alive. I must not wait until the New Year to resolve to thank God more for the many blessings I have received. I really do have a lot to be thankful for!

I thank God for my wife, my children, my home, my job, and my church. I thank God for my freedom. I thank Him for health, and for granting me the breath I just took, the one I am taking now, and the one I will take in a moment. I thank Him for every heartbeat. I thank God for all these privileges, and for much, much more.

I hope you have a great holiday season, and I will be back when I think you are all reading again—and not before I have at least a few comments on this post to prove you are ready to hear from me again!

Meanwhile, I do have one question for my American friends — as you eat turkey at Thanksgiving, what do you eat at Christmas? Is it a second turkey with all the trimmings or something else?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!