Who's cooking with rosemary this Thanksgiving?  A few springs in your turkey will flavor both your bird and your gravy, and some dried leaves in the stuffing pair perfectly with sausage and onion. Yummy!

Every time I cut a small branch or rosemary from my yard I think of Ophelia's grief laden seliloque in Hamlet (Act IV; scene V) where she says,  "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance."  And in early Greek traditions, students wore wreaths of rosemary on exam days to help them remember all they had learned.

With Thanksgiving fast approaching I have remembrances of my own on my mind.  I am full of thanksgiving when I recall all that my God has done for me; lavishing me with His strength when I am weak, true wealth when I feel poor, and His salvation since I am utterly unable to save myself.

Expand your lungs, O you His Saints,

And shout to give Him Praise

For He brought you forth from waters deep;

From the Devil’s helm where waters break.

Crying out amidst the roaring sea,

Treading through dark, deathly waves,

You called to the God of Israel,

To the Holy One who saves.

Don’t you recall the treacherous deep?

Can’t you still feel the cold?

Of Death’s sure grasp to drown you there,

So far from Heaven’s hold?

And yet the Lord who reigns on high

Responded to your plea;

Because He loves your fragile form

As shown on Calvary.

Was it this week He proved Himself

Faithful to your call?

Or was it many years ago

Do you even recall?

His hands, O how they lifted you,

From the craftiness of waves.

And placed you in a sure, dry space

Far from the reach of Sheol’s grave.

Let us join together with one sure voice

Lift up your heads and sing.

Give thanks to the Lord who reigns on high

Who’s done such wondrous things. 

When we recall with vivid clarity the miracle of our Salvation, Thanksgiving naturally pours out of our lives!  Take a moment today, and tomorrow, and the next day, to prepare you heart for an authentic, grateful response to the God "Who's done such wondrous things!"

And let us remember as a Nation that this is what Thanksgiving really is all about.  At that first Thanksgiving feast in 1621, the early Pilgrims joined with their new Indian friends to celebrate all God had done for them, in the midst of great grief and loss.  No family went unharmed in their great journey and settlement in the new land, all had lost loved ones and suffered great pain and fear, but they put their eyes upon the Lord, who carried them out of the treacherous deep and gave them a sure place to stand.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  (Ps. 40:2)  

My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the LORD.  (Ps. 26:12)