I don’t know if children learn this song in school today, but if you are in America, and you’re over a certain age you will remember this one:

Over the rivers and trough the wood to grandmother’s house we go…

We always had to sing this song the day before Thanksgiving. It’s an old song from the New England tradition, where the celebration of Thanksgiving as we understand it originated. Of course, peoples have celebrated some form of harvest festival all around the globe for centuries, and a great many nations have their unique way of going about it. Here in the US, we have Thanksgiving as a national holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.

It is my personal favorite for a variety of reasons, but most of all, for me at least, is that it has a way of making me put life into a better perspective going forward. Just the act of pausing to reflect on everything that I have to be thankful for, and thanking God for it seems to put life’s problems into perspective for me. Yet like with so many other celebrations during the year, maybe this one is just a catalyst to remind us of something we should be doing every day.

We pause to reflect, restore our perspective on what is truly important, and what is not, and then we get back out there on the road of life. Where are we headed? Are we traveling through life all alone, or are we in a group that is travelling together? Is our Lord leading us on this journey, or are we taking our own path?

Hmm… This pause to reflect may take more time than I thought.