Thanksgiving is easy when life is smooth, isn’t it?
Gratitude rises without much effort when the answers have already arrived and the people we love are sitting safely around our tables. But sometimes the season meets us in the middle of unanswered prayers, or with someone we care about still far from home, or hoping for a breakthrough that hasn’t come. It’s in those in-between places that Thanksgiving begins to look a little different.
That truth has been nudging me all fall as our Bible Study Fellowship class has been walking through the book of Daniel, headed toward the ultimate return of the Jewish exiles. We witnessed Daniel’s spending most of his life far from home, in a place he didn’t choose, surrounded by circumstances he couldn’t change. Yet he still turned toward God with thanksgiving. Not after everything was fixed, but right in the middle of exile.
Daniel’s example feels especially close to my heart this season. When someone you care about is walking through hardship, you learn to pray differently. You learn to hope differently. You learn that thanksgiving isn’t always loud or triumphant. Sometimes it’s a small, steady flame – a way of saying, “Lord, I trust You, even here.”
What comforts me is knowing that God was at work in Daniel’s story long before Daniel could see it – moving kings, shaping moments, preparing answers. I believe he is doing the same today.
When I look around, I think of so many people carrying hidden burdens right now. Some are waiting for a phone call. Some are waiting for a decision. Some are waiting to feel at home again. Some are waiting in faraway places, praying over doors that seem firmly closed, trusting that God has not forgotten them.
And for all of them – for all of us – Daniel’s life whispers that God is already working in places we cannot see, weaving grace into the very spaces that feel unfinished.
Maybe that’s where Thanksgiving really begins – not just when the blessing arrives, but when we choose to trust the Giver. When we whisper thanks before we see the answer. When we say, “Lord, I don’t understand the timing, but I believe You are good.”
It reminds me of the way Jesus prayed before he multiplied the loaves and fishes. He gave thanks while the need was still bigger than the supply, thanking the Father before the answer unfolded. That kind of early thanksgiving doesn’t ignore reality. It simply declares that God is greater than the uncertainty we face.
Daniel reminds me that gratitude is not a denial of hardship, but a declaration of faith. He wasn’t pretending everything was easy; he simply knew Who held his future. Maybe that’s the invitation for us too – to practice a thanksgiving that is steady, honest and rooted in the character of God rather than the circumstances around us.
One of the most striking moments in Daniel comes in Chapter 10. Daniel has been praying faithfully for his people, bearing their burdens as his own. But the heavens seem silent. Three weeks pass with no sign of an answer. Then a messenger finally arrives and tells him something that must have stunned him: “Do not be afraid … from the first day you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard” (Daniel 10:12).
“From the very first day.” I love that phrase … Before Daniel saw anything change … before help arrived … before he had any reason to believe his prayer had even reached heaven. God had already heard him. Sometimes I think we need that reminder during the holidays – that even when we’re waiting, even when life feels paused or uncertain, God is already attending to the prayers we hardly know how to form.
So as we approach Thanksgiving Day, if you or someone you love is still standing in the doorway of hope – waiting, watching, praying – take comfort in Daniel’s reminder: God hears the very first sigh of a prayer, long before the answer arrives. He hears across oceans, across delays, across the ache of longing. He is already preparing the steps ahead.
May we find strength in that truth as we give thanks, even here, even now.
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Sallie Rose Hollis lives in Ruston and retired from Louisiana Tech as an associate professor of journalism and the assistant director of the News Bureau. She can be contacted at sallierose@mail.com.
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