We had a visitor speak once at church who was from Uganda. He said that when he goes back to Africa and tells them about grocery stores they do not believe him. He tries to explain to them the concept of Wal-Mart and it boggles their mind. They do not have a knowledge base for the idea of a building that large in the first place. They cannot conceive that there would ever be enough food to gather it in one place like that. When he tells them that people push a cart in and fill it all the way up with food and then hand the person a small little card and they walk out with the food, it is a story straight from the fairy tales for them. He takes pictures of the large parking lots at the malls to show them back in Africa. They cannot conceive of so many cars in one place. They have very few cars at all-one car to 500 people. A parking lot that is acres wide full of cars boggles their mind!
He said something in his speech that has stuck with me; though, I have to admit I don’t think on it as often as I should. He said, “In Uganda we eat so that we can live. In America you live so that you can eat.” Wow. Simply, wow. There is no getting around the truth of that statement. Why has God blessed this nation with so much? We are such a young nation. We rose to power so quickly. We have gained so much over such a short period of time. Why? Well, that is a question for another blog.
Tomorrow it is Thanksgiving. I like that we take a day and devote it to thankfulness. I think it is important, though, that we are not just thanking the air. “I am thankful for…” BUT that we thank God for it all. “I am thankful to God that He has blessed me with …” I don’t know if the point made in that article I read is true. I don’t know if around America the original intent of Thanksgiving has been lost. There is not a whole lot I can do about that anyway. I can be sure that in our home we remember why this day was made a holiday in OUR nation. I can try to make sure that my heart is a grateful heart not only on Thanksgiving but every day. I don’t like being more grateful when something or someone is gone than I was when I had it around.
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