The Thanksgiving Tree - November's Family Devotion

For Parents: 

The mall is decorated for Christmas before Halloween has even arrived.   With the crush of Christmas coming, it is easy to skip right over Thanksgiving and head into celebrating Christmas.  November’s family devotion is designed to help your family set aside time to be grateful – to give thanks – for the immeasurable ways God has blessed you.  Our family has had a Thanksgiving tree for the past 6 years.  The day after Thanksgiving I collect our “gratitude leaves” and place them in a zip lock bag with the year written on it.  Each year when we get out our Thanksgiving tree and other decorations, we take time to look through the bags from past years.  It is an amazing testimony to God’s enduring faithfulness to our family.  I pray that this devotion will be the start of a new tradition for your family, a tradition of entering the holiday season with thanks. 

Materials You Will Need: 

·         Bible,

·         Garden pot

·         Rocks to fill the pot – or florist Styrofoam to support your tree branch

·         Tree Branch

·         Colored paper leaves with ribbon or string attached to hang on your tree. (if time and ages allow, making these leaves can be part of your family time.  Precut paper leaves can also be purchased from your local craft or teacher supply store.  Look in the bulletin board or scrapbooking section)

·         Tree branch – approximately 24-30 inches tall with multiple smaller branches coming from it – if you cannot find a suitable branch in your yard, you can purchase one at your local craft store)

·         Pens or markers

·         Optional: decorative ribbon to tie around your pot. 

 The Thanksgiving Tree: 

November's Family Devotion

Introduction:   

We are fortunate in the United States to have a national holiday set aside to thank God for His many blessings.  Sometimes it may feel like Thanksgiving is a day about football games, lots of food, watching parades or even getting ready to shop for Christmas, but that is not what Thanksgiving is all about. 

Thanksgiving is a day set aside to thank God for the many ways He has blessed us.  God wants us to take time to thank Him.  Throughout the bible we can find stories of people who please God by being grateful to Him, and people who angered God by being ungrateful.  We want to be a family who pleases God.  We want to be a family who takes the time to thank God for the many gifts He has given our family.   

 Reading:  Luke 17: 11-19 Ten Men Healed of Leprosy

Discussion:

·         What did Jesus do for the ten men?

Leprosy is a severe skin disease.  It is painful and at the time of Jesus, there was no known cure.  People with leprosy had many wounds on their skin, and often lost parts of their face, hands and feet.  While the physical pain of leprosy was great, perhaps the greater pain was that people with leprosy had to live away from their families, outside of towns and cities.  When Jesus healed them, He not only physically healed them, but he allowed them to return to their families.  What a gift!

·         Why do you think the one man came to thank Jesus?

·         Why do you think the nine men did not come back?  

·         It is easy to think that we would be like the one man who came back, but it is easy to be like the other nine and forget to thank God for the good things He does for us.  Discuss as a family what you have to thank God for just from today.

·         Discuss as a family how often you take time to thank God for His many blessings.  How can your family help one another remember to “go back” and thank God?

Family Activity:  We are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving.  We want to take time to remember the many ways God has blessed our family this past year.  We are going to make a Thanksgiving Tree which will display and celebrate our gratitude.  Today we will put together our tree and add the first leaves.  Between now and Thanksgiving we will have blank leaves to add to the tree as we think of additional things.  On Thanksgiving we will read all of our leaves together. 

1.       Secure your tree branch in your pot with rocks or florist foam.

2.       Tie decorative ribbon around your pot if desired.

3.       If you are planning on cutting out paper leaves, trace leaf patterns onto orange, red,  and yellow construction paper and cut out.  Punch a small hole at the top of each leaf and tie ribbon or raffia through the hole.  You will need a total of 15-40 leaves (plan on 5 per person)

4.       To start off your tree, have each family member write out one or two leaves of things they are grateful for. 

5.       Place remaining leaves in a small dish or basket near the tree so family members can add leaves as desired between now and Thanksgiving. 

On Thanksgiving take time to read all the leaves on your tree.  If you have guests coming for Thanksgiving dinner, leave one or two blank leaves at their dinner place so they can participate in your celebration of giving thanks. 

 

Closing Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father:

We desire to be a grateful family.  Lord like the one man who came back to you and praised you, we lift our hearts in praise and thanksgiving to you Lord.  You are a good and loving God.  You have showered our family in blessings.  We take time now to each offer our thanks to you...(allow each family member to share as desired and able).  We lift up all of these things to you in great thanksgiving,  in your Son’s precious name.  Amen.