Greetings from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church!
Let me begin by wishing you the happiest of Thanksgiving celebrations this year. You know, Thanksgiving is actually a very healthy holiday. I am not referring to the enormous meals that are likely to be served on family tables all across this great nation of ours. I am referring to the benefits of a thankful heart. Proverbs 15:15 tells us that “the cheerful heart has a continual feast.” In Proverbs 17:22 we are told that “a cheerful heart is good medicine,” and Nehemiah 8:10 calls “the joy of the Lord our strength. “During the times that we are cheerful and thankful for all that the Lord has done we receive an additional blessing of strength and bodily health.
Even as I write these words I am painfully reminded that not everyone will share this sentiment. Not everyone will feel like they have something to be thankful for. This was best illustrated for me in a Peanuts comic strip that came out some years ago just a few days before Thanksgiving.
Lucy is feeling sorry for herself and she laments, “My life is a drag. I’m completely fed up. I’ve never felt so low in my life.”
Her little brother Linus tries to console her and he says, “Lucy, when you’re in a mood like this, you should try to think of things you have to be thankful for; in other words, count your blessings.”
To that, Lucy says, “Ha! That’s a good one! I could count my blessings on one finger! I’ve never had anything and I never will have anything. I don’t get half the breaks that other people do. Nothing ever goes right for me! And you talk about counting blessings! You talk about being thankful! What do I have to be thankful for?”
Linus says, “Well, for one thing, you have a little brother who loves you.”
With that, Lucy runs and hugs her little brother Linus as she cries tears of joy.
And while she’s hugging him tightly, Linus says, “Every now and then, I say the right thing.”
Thanksgiving is a day we count our blessings. “Count your many blessings,” says the old Gospel tune, “name them one by one; count your many blessings see what God has done.” We give thanks because we recognize the immeasurable and unfailing goodness of our God. The psalmist in Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Here the psalmist lays the reason we ought to give thanks. He says, God is GOOD and our desire should be for others to come to know His goodness in their lives! I love the way the psalmist uses the analogy of tasting God to see if He is good! In the food business, when we eat something we come to the conclusion in our minds whether we like it or not. Did you ever taste some food that you'll never forget? There are things we eat that we come to savor and long for like Cherry Cheese Cake or beef stew… and there are things in our lives that we simply do NOT like! Spiritually speaking the psalmist is urging us to taste and see for ourselves how wonderful God’s love, mercy and grace is! To “taste” here is literally to perceive by experiencing. It involves a conscious decision to be involved.
I recall a TV commercial years ago for Life cereal. Some boys were reluctant to taste the new cereal their Mom had brought home, so they tried it on their little brother, Mikey. They said, “Let’s give it to Mikey, He’ll eat it. He eats everything!” Well when it comes to pursuing God we don’t have to worry about being manipulated or forced into something we don’t want. God is too much of gentleman to force his way into our lives. Tasting God means taking God at His Word. The Psalmist calls on his readers to ‘taste’ the salvation that God provides and see if it is GOOD! So go ahead and taste and see for yourself and then watch the gratitude grow in your life because of all the wonderful things God has done and is doing.
October is a special month here at St. Andrew’s Church with plans for special events and special occasions. Worldwide Communion will be celebrated on Sunday October 5/2025. The following week will be Thanksgiving Sunday when we once again will have an opportunity to come together collectively to “gratefully ACKNOWLEDGE” and thankfully EXPRESS to God our love for Him in our time of worship on Sunday. Also, this month our church will be celebrating 130 years of ministry on Sun. Oct. 19, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. with a potuck luncheon to follow. Along with some special music Rev. Janice Hamalainen who served as the Pastor of St. Andrew’s during the period of 2008 to 2012 will be our guest speaker. Everyone is welcome!
So as thanksgiving rolls around this year, we the elders of St. Andrew’s would encourage you to take the time to “feast” at the table of a cheerful heart. We can be truly grateful when we have each tasted and seen that the Lord is indeed good.
Please accept this letter as our personal invitation to you and your family to become part of the church family at St. Andrew’s. If you have any questions about our church or any of our ministries, or if we can help you in any way, please call me at 705- 647-8401. “A friendly welcome awaits you!”
God Bless,
George Paraskevopoulos, Pastor