Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite days of the year. The reason has evolved as I have gotten older, but it remains a day that brings me immense joy. When I was a kid, one of the main reasons I looked forward to the day was watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Growing up in New York, the parade was a big part of the holiday. The weeks and days leading up to Thanksgiving would be filled with news stories about the preparations the city was undertaking to get ready for the big day, previews of the balloons and floats, and on the night before, they would show scenes of the balloons being inflated, an event that was popularized on a 1994 episode of Seinfeld. As a child it was magical to watch, and I felt a sense of pride knowing that it was happening in my hometown.
The parade has changed over the years and has followed different routes. The current version contains twenty-five balloons, thirty-one floats and eleven bands marching on a two-and-a-half-mile route starting on Central Park West, turning on Central Park South at Columbus Circle and then continuing on to Sixth Avenue where it makes its way to the television cameras in Herald Square waiting to broadcast the festivities to the millions watching at home. The route of the first parade was considerably different as it stretched six miles starting from 145th Street in Harlem and contained live animals from the Central Park Zoo which were eventually replaced with the balloons that we are familiar with today.
Just as the route of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade has changed over the years, so does our path on life’s journey. Whether it is an illness, the loss of a job or the death of a loved one, we all encounter unexpected changes in our lives that lead us down a new path. The key, and most difficult part of handling these changes, is to remain thankful. Giving thanks is a central part of our faith and a central part of being a disciple of Christ. It is easy to show gratitude when things are going well, but we must also remember to be thankful during the tough times. Colossians 3:17 reminds us “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” The difficult situations that I have experienced over the course of my life have helped me to grow in thankfulness. They have made me thankful for what I have and thankful that by the grace of God I have persevered and found a new path. As we hear in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”
In hearing those words, I think back to one Thanksgiving morning in particular when I was eleven years old. I woke up early, just like I had done every year prior, to make sure I was awake in time to watch the parade. However, that holiday was going to be different as it was the first Thanksgiving since my mom passed away. I hoped that watching the parade would provide a sense of normalcy in a year that had turned everything in my world upside down. The loss of my mom was an extreme shift from the path I thought I was following and required massive adjustments to every aspect of my life. It was difficult to get into the spirit of that holiday as I was still processing what had happened, but the parade provided a much-needed distraction. It may sound like a small thing, but I was thankful to have something familiar and fun to watch that allowed me to escape from reality for a few hours. In the midst of a difficult day, I was thankful that morning for the parade.
Experiencing a tragic loss at such an early age shaped my life in many ways. One of the most impactful was leading me to a life of thankfulness and gratitude. That may sound strange to say, but I am so much more thankful for the people and things that I have in my life now because of what I have lost. As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, it is important to remember that the act of giving thanks does not mean only focusing on the positives, we must also examine the negatives because the most important takeaway from the setbacks that we encounter is that, through God’s mercy we have endured. This realization is central to what Thanksgiving is all about. It is about a commitment of giving thanks every day, in both good times and bad. A quick examination of where we are, where we have been and how far we have come, will give us the proper perspective to offer thanks. If we search our hearts and minds through a reflective lens, it will be easy to find many blessings to be thankful for no matter what we are going through.
The parade has changed over the years and so have I, but one thing remains constant, it is still one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving because I now get to watch it with my kids. As we gather around the tv, I see the same excitement in their eyes that I had at their age as they watch the balloons and floats pass by while awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus and the beginning of the most important time on the kid calendar, Christmas time. My kids’ schedules have gotten busier as they have gotten older and often, we are going our separate ways, but I know that on Thanksgiving morning, we will come together to share in the joy and wonder of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and for that I am thankful.
As we gather with friends and family to enjoy our Thanksgiving celebrations, let us do so with gratitude in our hearts while giving thanks to God. As Romans 11:36 states, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.”
Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!!