#GiveThanks

     The tradition of posting online what you're grateful for around this time of year is nothing new, but did you notice that before Friday the November gratitude posts seemed a little more scarce than in earlier years? It's almost as if it was hard to think of things to be grateful for in 2020. How odd I wonder why....

    President Nelson's call to give thanks has ignited this year's wave of Thanksgiving posts right on time. The holidays were just not feeling all that holiday this year, since at time of writing gathering with those outside of one's household is off limits in Utah and the numbers of COVID-19 infections are still going up. This was starting to shape up to be one of those cheesy holiday specials where somebody comes by and steals Christmas. 

    Which brings me to the geeky side of my post: This reminds me of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", the original animated piece not the Jim Carrey one or the CGI thing.  If you remember when the Grinch is listing all the things he hates about Christmas (Which I get) at the very end he says "And those Who's big and small will stand hand and hand, and start singing". After the Grinch steals Christmas he stands on his mountain, hand to his ear to hear the misery his great theft has caused. This was the world last week, as the holidays grew closer, the joy robbed and distorted in them. Anxiety uncertainty and fear raged as it looked like the holiday spirit just wasn't going to come. 

    Then, over the hills, the #GiveThanks posts started arriving. Like the Who's song, "it came without ribbons, it came without tags. It came without packages boxes or bags!" It came because of the call of a prophet, reminding us that the holidays don't come from a store, or tradition, or normality, the spirit comes from within us. It comes just the same. 

    This is the first time in a very long time that the Christmas movies are right, that the holidays are in danger. Thanksgiving looks pretty good but once however it's celebrated happens let's try to keep the momentum going and remember what's really important about this time of the year. With the holidays pillaged we need to double down on what's really important, prove that we don't need the excess to celebrate, that we don't need a good year to have a good Thanksgiving, what we need is our faith, in each other and in our Father in Heaven. 

-JOE