For way too many of us, Thanksgiving is no longer a day set aside to give thanks to our Creator for all His blessings. Instead, it has become a distraction, a family-, food- and football-filled way to forget all about Him. 

If that sounds a little too familiar to you, take a few minutes to listen to Chris Carrillo's reflections on this great American tradition. It's the message he delivered to the folks at Care-age of Brookfield this past Sunday, and it's a doozy of a wake-up call:

If you're reading this via email, please click on the headline above to be taken to the audio file. Then, if you can't get enough of our preacher's messages, visit our Messages from Chris Carrillo page.

Two years ago, I received a Christmas gift that may be the most brilliant yet--a gift that was made possible by a particularly loving and thoughtful relative of my dear friend Wilma.  
 
Here’s the scoop--only the names have been changed.
 
A recently retired resident of the American southwest, Felicity is an absolute artist when it comes to hand-crafting greeting cards of all kinds, from birthday and Christmas cards to “Thinking of You” notes. And she keeps her elderly Aunt Wilma well stocked with a lovely array of these cards, complete with matching envelopes. In fact, she sends Wilma a large box of handmade cards each year around Thanksgiving, for Christmas greetings as well as general correspondence well into the new year.
 
But Felicity encloses more than cards and envelopes in her Thanksgiving box. She also includes seasonless handmade gift bags, each containing festive tissue paper, each adorned with colorful decorations and an elaborate “Thank You,” and each bearing a tiny envelope and notecard for her aunt to personalize. This, in fact, was the brilliant present Wilma gave me--one of these pretty gift bags with a warm handwritten note and a selection of gorgeous handmade cards.
 
The point being, of course, that Felicity not only fuels her aunt’s letter-writing activities at Christmas and throughout the year, but also enables Wilma to share these unique cards with her friends whenever the occasion warrants.
 
It’s far from the only way that Felicity shows her love to her favorite aunt. But it certainly is one of the most practical and memorable. It’s also one of the most highly coveted, not only by Wilma, but also by all her friends who are fortunate enough to receive one of these special gifts!