A Thanksgiving Parable

Once upon a time there was very wise and loving father who lived in a village far away.  He lived there with his children who he dearly loved.  Though the father was much more wealthy than any other person in town, He and His children lived a very simple life together.  Life was so simple for these children, because their greatest delight was simply spending time with their father.  Day after day the children talked with their father, learned from their father (they didn’t go to a public school, because they were taught by their father who was the smartest man in the village), played with their father, ate with their father and enjoyed the intimate company of their father and one another.  Their father loved them more than any other father loved any other children in the entire village.

            As the children grew older and more mature this loving father wanted to give them wonderful gifts.  He wanted these gifts to be enjoyable to them.  He also wanted these gifts to come from his own vast riches.  One by one the father gave his children gifts with which they could play, work, travel and learn.  They were each very pleased and very thankful for all of their wonderful gifts.  Each day these children would wake up and go talk to their father and tell him how thankful they were for their gifts.        

            After several years of receiving, enjoying and being so thankful for all the gifts the father gave them, these children began spending more time with the gifts than they did with their loving father.  In fact the father was very sad that his children spent more time enjoying their new gifts than they did enjoying him.  It seemed to him that the gifts he gave them out of his love for them, were now destroying their relationship with him. 

            Over time the children grew distant to their father.  Their gifts consumed them more and more.  To make things worse the children, who had always been so close and giving to one another, began fighting over their gifts. 

            When the father approached the children with the desire to have time together with them, they always had responsibilities related to these gifts.  One might say, “Father, I have maintenance to do on this gift, and do not really have time to come see You right now.”  Another would say, “Father, I would love to come be with you and the rest of our family, but I have to work overtime to pay for the taxes on the gifts.”  Still another would say, “Father, I know it would be good to come by to see you, but I work 6 days a week to pay for the accessories for the gift, and only have one day to relax and enjoy it.”  Some actually had appointments to show their gifts around to others.  Finally, there were those who so loved their gifts they just simply did not see the importance of visiting the Father.  In fact, they would say, “Father, when I am enjoying my gift I think of You, so it is not necessary for me to come to Your house to see you.”  Life…for these children…had become all about the gifts and not so much about their gracious Father.

            After many years, however, the children’s gifts began to break, tear up, get lost, wear out or become uninteresting.  As this happened all the children responded differently.  Some became angry at their father for giving them gifts that would tear up, and they would not speak to him anymore.  They totally isolated themselves from him.  Still others had completely forgotten who gave them the gifts in the first place, so they wandered about aimlessly looking for more gifts.  Another group of the children, who had not spoken to their father much, called him and asked him to send them more gifts.  And, there were even those children who were so infatuated with their gifts that, when they saw the gifts were tearing up or unfulfilling, they began to try to replace this emptiness with drugs, alcohol, or broken relationships.  Worst of all, some of the other children actually left their own families just to pursue more gifts that the Father never wanted them to have.  All of these children were very sad and never really regained the joy they once had with their father.

            However, there was one group of children who realized what they had done and ran back to their father to have a close relationship with him again.  This group of children asked their father to forgive them.  You see, they had learned a very important lesson:  “When a loving father’s good gifts to his children become a barrier to Him,  those gifts can no longer be truly enjoyed.  Neither can a person be truly thankful for them”      

            Matthew 6:24-25,33

            “No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.  Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?   But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”