Love one another in Thanksgiving spirit

We, as Americans, celebrated Thanksgiving Day by pausing to offer gratitude to God as a nation and as individuals for his blessing and love for us.
We remembered the first year the Pilgrims landed and were reminded that half of them died because of a severe winter and a lack of food. The Indians taught them to plant corn, which nourished them.
In 1621, the following year, Gov. William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts wanted to set aside a day of feasting and prayer in thanksgiving to God for surviving the winter.
The settlers invited the Indians to this meal to give thanks to God and them for their blessings. The Pilgrims recognized God as the giver of all good things and offered him thanksgiving and gratitude.
On Tuesday in the Orthodox Christian Church, we celebrated a feast of gratitude, the Entry of the Theotokos, Mary the Mother of God, to the Temple. Joachim and Anna were childless for many years. They promised God that if they had a child, the child would be given to the service of God in the temple. When Joachim and Anna's daughter, Mary, was 3, they fulfilled their promise and offered Mary to God in thanksgiving and to fulfill their promise.
Holy of Holies
Zachariah led Mary into the Holy of Holies, where the high priest would enter only once a year, no one else was allowed to enter. Zachariah was led by the Holy Spirit to take the child into this most sacred area of the temple. The significance of the act was that God was preparing his vessel, his bride, his new temple, Mary, for his son to enter the world.
She was led into the Holy of Holies because God was telling the world that Mary would become the new temple. Mary became the new temple because she carried God for nine months. She was his physical temple, for she gave Christ her flesh, her blood and her bones, which replaced the wood, metal and stone of the temple.
In the temple, Mary prepared herself to become the mother of God. The Entry of Theotokos marks the fulfillment of the promise of Joachim and Anna to give Mary to God as an act of thanksgiving.
Let us continue to show gratitude to God like Joachim and Anna and the Pilgrim fathers.
Eternal life
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." God gave and wants us to learn about giving and experience the joy of giving. He asks us to give to continue his work on earth by supporting one another and doing all we can for the "least of these thy brethren."
We need to love one another as Jesus loves us. We need to bring joy to our neighbors, love to our enemies and appreciation to our families.
Let not the spirit of Thanksgiving Day be celebrated just once a year. When we commit ourselves and our life to Christ, the true thanksgiving begins.
The Rev. John Steffaro is the pastor of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Campbell.