Thanksgiving is Really Nesting Farm Animals! part 1

Thanksgiving. A yearly ritual of food, family, and football. Did I mention the food? lol. As fun as that all is, we need to remember that Thanksgiving has it's roots in scripture.

• Ps 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
• Php 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
• 2Co 9:11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

I believe, God's word is inspired...every word. I believe, the Spirit guided the writers in the selection of each and every word. I believe, God safe guards His words today as they are translated into a multitude of languages. The text we use today comes from early Greek manuscripts. Greek is such a descriptive language. Greek words convey so much more than simple meanings. Frequently, a Greek word will bring a series of images & emotions to mind in order to create the mental image of an expressed idea. Greek words build on each another to describe a complete process, event, or outcome. They describe, not only the events & actions, but the emotional response to those events or actions.

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I call it a Word Chain.

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Think of it like Nesting Farm Animals. That was a great toy we had for our kids. Cow, Horse, Pig, & Chicken. The kids could stack them up or "nest" them all together. Nesting sounds like they all bedded down in the barn. What it actually meant was that the toys opened in the middle to form 2 halves. Each smaller animal could "nest" inside the larger toy. The "top" would be put back on to form the whole animal again. The chicken was the smallest one of the lot and did not split. Here is how it worked. The chicken fit inside the pig, the pig inside the horse, and the horse, fit inside the cow. The kids loved it. Even then, they thought they were smarter than the adults. We would ask them "Why is the cow all alone? What happen to his friends...horse, pig, & chicken?" They would laugh and laugh because they knew. Outside was a cow, but Inside, was all the rest. They would quickly open up all the animals, clap their hands, and yell "surprise" as we "found" the missing friends. Then, they would just laugh and laugh. Great game! Great toy! The Greek language is just like that. Outside is the cow and Inside is all the rest. lol

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The Greek word for "Thanksgiving" is a perfect example of a word chain. Next time, we'll look at all of Thanksgiving's "friends" inside and be "surprised" by it's description of our relationship with God. Who knows, perhaps, we will even clap our hands, and laugh with joy before our father.