True Thanksgiving
By GAYLORD GOERTZEN
Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethren Church
Which are more deadly, sharks or vending machines? I grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., which was only two hour's drive from the beach. Our family often went to the beach for a day or for a weekend. I loved body surfing in the ocean and playing in the sand. I never saw any sharks but often heard stories of swimmers being attacked by sharks, so I knew sharks were dangerous. But I didn't think vending machines were dangerous.
One summer I worked in the office at a cattle feed lot and filled the Coca Cola vending machine as part of my job. The Coke machine didn't seem dangerous to me. So which are more deadly, sharks or Coke machines?
In spite of the fact that shark attacks made the news recently, in the past 22 years 11 people have been killed by sharks. During those same 22 years, however, 54 people have been killed by Coke machines falling on them. Coke machines are more deadly than sharks — four times more deadly! That means those of us who live in Kansas have to be very careful not when we go to the beach on a vacation but when we buy Coke from a Coke machine.
What makes Coke machines so deadly? Anger. Some people become so angry when a Coke machine takes their money but doesn't give them a Coke, that they rock the Coke machine in an attempt to get their Coke. Because the bottles or cans are stacked in the top part of the machine so they can fall to the bottom to be dispensed, a Coke machine will tip over when tilted to a 20 degree angle. Coke machines weigh over a 1,000 pounds fully loaded and can easily kill or injure a person if it falls on them. Around 30 people are injured each year by falling Coke machines.
The way people treat Coke machines is a lot like most people treat God. If they put the right amount of money in the machine and push the right buttons, they expect the Coke machine to give them what they want. Why? Because that's what a Coke machine is supposed to do. It's supposed to give you a Coke if you do all the right things — after all you deserve it, you paid for it.
Although people become angry and say and do all kinds of things when a Coke machine doesn't give them what they deserve, people never say "thank you." Why not? Because a Coke machine is just a machine. You don't thank machines.
What about God? Do we thank God for all that he gives us or do we treat him like a machine? When we do the right things and say the right words, we expect God to give us what we want. If he doesn't, we get mad at him and say all kinds of things about him, but when he does give us what we want, do we say thank you? If we think we deserve what God gives us, we won't. If we realize that we deserve nothing and everything God gives is a gift of his grace, we will thank him.
Thanksgiving — true thanksgiving — is the result of realizing that God has given us what we don't deserve. He has given us grace. That's why Psalm 107 says: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this — those He has redeemed from the hand of the foe."
The redeemed of the Lord are the ones who can give thanks to the Lord for the redeemed know that the Lord has given them the greatest gift in the world — the gift of salvation by grace. When we remember that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son," then we will remember to give thanks to the Lord for Jesus Christ our redeemer. Saying "thank you" to a Coke machine is not necessary. Saying "thank you" to the Lord our God is more than necessary; it's the least we can do considering all he has done for us.
