Nivedita knows Thanksgiving is not a once a year celebration. It is not just a time to relish a lavish banquet, spread on a table tastefully decorated table, with friends and family gathered around. In fact, Nivedita has cultivated a heart of thanksgiving to God the Father who loved the world with an unmatchable generosity. God the Father gave His Son who joyfully sacrificed Himself for wayward humanity. Jesus holds our hand and brings us up to God’s throne of grace. Nivedita is filled with gratitude towards Christ, because He unites us to our highest joy – God himself.
The Holy Spirit is the source of her thanksgiving because without Spirit it is impossible to please God (Rom. 8:5–8). Nivedita knows the God she worships. Her worship is not an ill-defined thanksgiving to an ill-defined deity, unknown and unknowable. The aroma of her thanksgiving flows to God the Father, through the Son, from the Spirit. Thanksgiving transforms us inside out, and replaces sinful behaviour. Apostle Paul commands disciples of Christ to stop sinning, and to replace it with thanksgiving. Paul writes: “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Eph. 5:4). Nivedita knows that we are always acting. We either act with sinful, thankless hearts which leads to foolish talk or crude jokes, or we act with thankful hearts and thereby please God with our words and works. Thanksgiving purifies creation as we rejoice and eat in the presence of God (Deut. 12:7). We offer thanksgiving to God while eating as a communication of God’s abundant goodness.
The Word of God admonishes us to thank God in all circumstances. Paul writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16–18). Thanking God through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit should be our life style.