Let's be clear -- Thanksgiving implies a Giver. Americans are headed home for the holidays again, and Thanksgiving travel loads now exceed those of Christmas. A central question is this: Who is to be thanked?

While most Americans have some notion that Thanksgiving is tied to an historical occasion when national ancestors thanked God, many Americans believe in no God to thank.

In other words, while most citizens have at least a vestigial understanding of the fact that Thanksgiving Day is intended as a focal opportunity to thank God for His many blessings to us, the God worshipped--and thanked--by millions of people bears little or no resemblance to the God of the Bible. As a matter of fact, conversation about the holiday is likely to reveal that many people have no transcendent referent in mind at all.

Just listen to those who speak about their reasons for being "thankful" without revealing to whom their thanks is directed. In some sense, it may be that a good many individuals think of giving thanks as some form of self-therapy, with gratitude identified more in attitudinal than theological terms.

In his Thanksgiving declaration of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln said, "It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people." Does this language now resonate with the American people? Or, is it merely an exercise in civil religion?

The secular vision of thanksgiving feels empty and false. If there is no Creator and the universe is a cosmic accident, whom do we thank? At best, all we can do is be happy--at least in some sense--that this accident has not turned out worse. If there is no divine intelligence or benevolence behind world events, public and personal, it certainly seems like our Thanksgiving is just an exercise in considering ourselves comparatively lucky. How can fate be thanked?

Americans are a creative people. Those who disbelieve in God may substitute some "attitude of gratitude" for thanksgiving, but it does look like a pale and artificial substitute.

At the very least Christians must be clear that our Thanksgiving is directed to God. This thankfulness reminds us that all we know and all we have has come by God's gracious provision. Our thankfulness is grounded in our thankfulness for our Savior, Jesus Christ, who taught his own disciples to give thanks. This thankfulness is also rooted in the Old Testament, where gratitude is displayed as the natural response of the creature to the Creator.

So, we pray for God to grant all Americans a safe Thanksgiving with friends and family -- and for all to come to know the deepest meaning of thankfulness.