I bet you didn’t know that since 1947 the President of the United States gets a live turkey and two dressed (killed, cleaned, but uncooked) turkeys. If that isn’t weird enough, just wait, it gets even weirder. He doesn’t eat the live turkey. He “pardons” [forgives] it and sets it free—allowing it to live out its remaining days on a farm.
“But let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey,” said President George H.W. Bush in 1989, “that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy. He’s presented a Presidential pardon as of right now—and allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here.”
It has been an annual tradition ever since.*
Great story but why am I sharing this with you, on this, not anywhere close to the season of Thanksgiving? Well, I share this with you because I want you to begin every day “giving thanks.” I hope this is something that I hope you’re already doing—not just on Thanksgiving.
One of my favorite Bible people put it this way: “ . . . always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins . . . . You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 1:12-14; 2: 13, 14, NLT).
So you can always be thankful to God for your pardon and your ultimate freedom from sin and death. But I also want to challenge you to take time, beginning today, to make and keep a running list of other things that you are thankful for and then, as a gift both to God and the special people in
your life, and share it with everyone.
No matter what’s happening in your life today, take time to give God thanks for the incredibly
amazing gift of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—on your behalf. I can’t think of a better way to begin your day today.
Additional Resources
Thankful (song by Gene Moore)
Experience of Salvation
* Downloaded on May 17, 2026, from https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/which-president-started-the-tradition-of-pardoning-the-thanksgiving-turkey
