Category Archives: Holidays

Merry Christmas!

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How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel.

~ Phillips Brooks, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”

I wish for your and your families a wonderful Christmas remembering and centering on the greatest Gift of all.

For the wages of sin is death;
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23

Book Review: The Women of Christmas

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I like to read something devotional about Christmas during December, with the Scripture passages regarding Advent themselves and/or a devotional book. I’ve enjoyed Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, compiled by Nancy Guthrie, a number of times and thought about picking it up again this year, but I kind of wanted something new and different. Then my friend Kim mentioned she was enjoying Liz Curtis Higgs’ book The Women of Christmas: Experience the Season Afresh with Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna.  I have read several of Liz’s novels, but never one of her non-fiction books, so on Kim’s recommendation I decided to give this one a try.

Women of ChristmasIt was just what I wanted this year. The book takes us thoughtfully through the Christmas passages of Scripture, focusing mainly, as the title indicates, on three women: Elizabeth is older, beyond the usual childbearing years, but finds herself miraculously expecting the forerunner of Christ. Mary is a young teenager, a virgin, yet she is told she will bear the Son of God. Anna is elderly yet still serves God with all her heart and life. Though Zacharias, Joseph, and Simeon are discussed as well, the main focus of the book is on how God worked in the lives of these women.

It’s obvious that Liz has put a wealth of study behind this book, but it’s not what I would call a technical book. She touches on some of the controversies and questions of the Christmas story but wisely doesn’t spend a lot of time speculating on that for which we have no answers. She brings and out meditates on the truth we can find from what God has told us in His Word and provides an opportunity to get a fresh viewpoint from passages so familiar that we can sometimes zip through them without stopping to think about the real implications for the real people in these real stories.

For instance, I never thought to wonder before why Mary went to see Elizabeth right after learning that she was going to bear Jesus. We can’t tell from the text how well they knew each other or whether they were close, though they are cousins. Elizabeth was quite a distance away from Mary. Yet when the angel, in his announcement to Mary, told her that her barren older cousin was pregnant, that must have been an encouragement to her that the God who did this impossible thing for Elizabeth could and would do the impossible thing the angel foretold for her as well. But it also provided her with someone who would understand something of what she was going through. There is no record that Mary told anyone about the angel’s announcement. We assume she told Joseph, though we don’t really know. But Elizabeth was the one person who would believe her about an angelic visit and a miraculous pregnancy.

A few quotes that stood out to me:

“Now consider this: the first person to hold the newborn Christ was Mary of Nazareth, and the first person to touch the newly risen Christ, however briefly, was Mary of Magdala. God placed himself in a woman’s care when he came to earth, then entrusted a woman to announce his resurrection when he came back to life.

“When I hear women rail that the Bible is misogynistic, I wonder if we’re reading the same book. God loves women, redeems women, empowers women – then and now. On the day we call Christmas, he could simply have arrived on earth, yet he chose to enter through a virgin’s womb. On the day we call Easter, he could have appeared first to his beloved disciple John, yet he chose as his first witness a woman set free from seven demons” (p. 122)

(On Mary’s bearing a child in a stable), “Given the circumstances, it’s surprising what we don’t find in the passage. She whined. She complained. She demanded better accommodations. Not our Mary. Even after giving birth to the Savior of the world, she didn’t insist on special treatment, didn’t fuss about there being ‘no space for them in the living-quarters'” (p. 124).

“On that day in Bethlehem, absolute abasement was bathed in breathtaking glory. Born the lowest of the low, the infant Jesus was the highest of the high” (p. 125).

(On the announcement by the angels to the shepherds), “We’ve seen countless Christmas cards and tabletop Natvity scenes with Jesus as a ‘newborn baby’ (CEB) dressed in ‘swaddling-clothes’ (KNOX) and ‘lying in a feeding trough’ (ERV). But we’ve had a lifetime to embrace that reality. Think of these men hearing it for the first time” (p. 130).

(After the shepherds told everyone about the baby on their way back to their sheep), “What about Mary? Did she run around Bethlehem, telling everyone about God’s Son? She did not. ‘But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.’ Luke 2:19. Mary focused on caring for her baby while she stored all she’d seen and done ‘like a secret treasure in her heart’ (NIrV). Some women like to talk their way through experiences; others prefer the Mary approach: ‘weighing and pondering’ (AMP), ‘mulling them over’ (CJB), and ‘trying to understand them’ (ERV)” (p. 136).

Note in the last quote that she didn’t say this was a better approach: just that it contrasted with the reaction of the shepherds and then later Anna. That was a blessing to me in this year of having read and heard a lot about introverts and extroverts: neither is better, God made both, and He works in and through both in different ways for His glory.

I’m so glad I read this book this year. It provided me with many quiet, meditative moments during the mornings of this Christmas season. I’m sure I’ll be using it again in years to come.

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Book Review: When Mother Was Eleven-Foot-Four

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eleven foot fourWhen Mother Was Eleven-Foot-Four by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt caught my eye when it was free for the Kindle app at the time. I didn’t realize it was a children’s book, but as I think C. S. Lewis said, the best children’s books are enjoyable to adults as well, and this one definitely is.

This is the story of the Christmas of 1963 for the author’s family. His mother was a tiny woman, only four-foot-eleven and about 100 lbs., but when she drew herself up to her full height, she seemed eleven-foot-four. One full-height moment was when she stared down a black-clad, tattooed biker who was making threats against her: “He blinked first.”

Mother loved everything about Christmas: the multitudes of ornaments, with a story behind every one, the symbols and meanings of everything they did for the season. She was romantic and extravagant, because she believed God was. Father  was a realist because he believed God was. Father was a man of principle, inflexible because, after all, how can a man of principle compromise his principles? And some of his strongest principles revolved around Christmas: he felt it was too commercial and that Santa’s list-keeping of good boys and girls gave the wrong idea that gifts were earned. So every year they clashed over Christmas, ending with Father compromising for Mother…

…Until one Christmas, when everything changed. Poverty and grief hung heavily over the family, and it looked like there would be no Christmas celebrating. That’s when Mother’s boys learned what Christmas giving really meant, and learned that both parents were right.

I can’t tell you much more than that, because it’s a very short book, but it’s very sweet and not at all sappy like some of the made-for-TV Christmas movies. I especially loved the author’s last couple of pages of reflections.

I just discovered the hardback version, which is apparently out of print, but the glimpse of its illustrations made me seek out a used copy. I think this book is going to become a yearly tradition.

(Updated to add: there was one aspect of the story that bothered me that I couldn’t really put into words until a day or so after posting the review. Though traditions are important, I did have trouble with Mother in the story fighting with Father over them and then going beyond what he compromised to say she could do. It sounded like, with their two strong personalities and different views, this was a regular thing, not just at Christmas, which is probably what led to the father leaving (which is what caused the grief mention that one Christmas). The mother did say later that she wished she had done better by him, so maybe she realized that as well (though of course the fault for the marriage break-up wasn’t entirely hers). As this is a story from a child’s point of view about learning to give at Christmas, the author doesn’t go into analyzing all of that: he appropriately just mentions what is necessary to this particular story.)

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Mary’s Song

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Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest…
you who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.

His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world. Charmed by dove’s voices,
the whisper of straw, he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
all years. Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught
that I might be free, blind in my womb
to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

~ Luci Shaw

A New Christmas Meme

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Do any of you remember when bloggers used to do this kind of thing all the time – make up memes or questionnaires that others could chime in on or use on their own blogs? Those were fun – I guess maybe people just don’t have time for them as much as they once did.

But some fun questions came to mind this week, so I thought I’d make up a new one. If you’d like to copy these questions and use them on your own blog, you are welcome to. I’d appreciate a link back with acknowledgement as the originator of it, but it’s not like I am going to hunt you down if you don’t. 🙂 If you’d like to answer in the comments, or just leave a comment without answering the questions yourself, or just choose a few of the questions, that’s fine as well.

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 What is your favorite Christmas song? Hymn: “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.” Secular: “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.”

Favorite Christmas special/movie? Charlie Brown Christmas, White Christmas.

What kind of special goodies do you make in December? Harvest Loaf Cake is a must.

Harvest Loaf cake

I also sometimes make gingerbread teddy bears:

We used to do decorated sugar cookies when the kids were little, mainly for fun and the experience of it, but I was never particularly good at those and marveled at how some of my friends could make them look so beautiful.

Favorite Christmas beverage? Apple cider. It’s not exclusive to Christmas, of course, but that’s usually when I have it. The rest of the family likes eggnog, but I think it’s nasty stuff.

How many Christmas parties do you usually attend? Usually just two, the church ladies’ Christmas party and our adult Sunday School Christmas party. This year we’re putting off the SS one until January both to reduce some of the busyness of the season plus to have something to look forward to after it’s all over. In some years we’ve had choir or deacon Christmas parties, depending on what we were involved in during any given year. One friend used to have after-Christmas parties for the same reason mentioned earlier

Do you go Christmas caroling? Does anyone come Christmas caroling to your house? We don’t go caroling although we have occasionally in past years. Last year some folks from church went out caroling to all the “at-home” members who can’t make it out to services, and they included my mother-in-law for that at her assisted living place. She’s at our home now, and they are planning to do that again, so I imagine we’ll benefit from some carolers then.

What’s on your front door at Christmas? For the past 2 or 3 years it has been this wreath I made, inspired by one designed by Charlotte Lyons in Amy Powers’ Inspired Ideas Christmas magazine (p. 26).

When do you put the tree up and take it down? Nowadays we put it up after Thanksgiving because Jeremy is here then and the whole family can decorate together. We didn’t used to get it up until a couple of weekends into December, but I like doing it after Thanksgiving – we can enjoy it longer plus it’s less stressful to get it up earlier rather than mid-December when there are a ton of things going on (or used to be, when the kids were home and had Christmas programs, recitals, and parties both at school and church). We don’t have a particular time to take it down – just whenever we can get to it, usually within a week or so after Christmas.

Do you decorate with traditional red and green or with other colors? We have a variety of colors. I don’t have much red in my home, so I try to de-emphasize red a bit, but we do have both red and green as well as other colors. We have a lot of blue because the family room, where the Christmas tree is, has a lot of blue. There is also some silver and gold and white and a little pink. 🙂 I have a little pink-decorated tree on my desk.

How many Christmas trees do you put up (large and small?) The main big one is in the family room.

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I have three little ones: the pink one I mentioned on my desk:

A miniature tree in the dining room on the dry sink:

And a small one on the living room end table in front of the window:

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Are your Christmas tree decorations themed or hodgepodge? Hodgepodge. I like it that way. 🙂 When I was growing up, a lot of families had a themed or more formally decorated tree in the living room (remember the white or aluminum ones with the circular multi-colored disk that would revolve and throw different colors onto it? We never had those but many did) and a more hodgepodge “family” tree in the family room. My own family always had just the family one.

Ham, turkey, both, or something else for Christmas dinner? Usually ham with cheesy potatoes, some kind of vegetable, rolls, and apple and pumpkin pie.

Favorite ham leftovers? Swiss Ham Ring Around:

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Do you have any Christmas traditions that are unusual, out of the ordinary? Not that I can think of, except that we like to have these snacks during the Christmas season which aren’t in themselves Christmasy: Chicken in a Bisket crackers, spray cheese, and Pirouette cookies. Plus in our old house, there was a hook in the ceiling right above where we put the tree, where I guess the previous owners must have had a house plant or hanging lamp, and the boys would always put a snowflake ornament there above the tree. Our house now doesn’t have that, so they are creative about finding ways to hang that snowflake. And we continue to use some of our misfit ornaments – those are some of their favorites.

Otherwise we’re pretty traditional, I think. 🙂

Do you display Christmas cards in particular way? I used to hang them up on a garland until we moved to a house where there wasn’t a place to hang one, so for a few years I kept them in a basket. This year we’ve found a place to hang a garland up again, so I am looking forward to having them displayed again. I enjoy having them out like that to enjoy more than the momentary opening. A lot of families have to just sending a Christmas letter instead of a card rather than in a card – I’ll probably keep those in a basket.

What do you do with the Christmas cards you received after the holidays are over? I’m actually asking this question to get some ideas. 🙂 I hate to throw them away. I usually keep them in a stack for a while and then go through and throw some out and keep the particularly meaningful ones (if I kept every single one, they’d just end up in a box in the attic and no one would ever go through them). When the kids were little I kept them, thinking the next year we’d use them to cut off the fronts and make a collage – but we never got around to that. 🙂

Christmas newsletters: Love ’em or hate ’em? I love them. I enjoy hearing what’s gone on with friends during the year. Some times they share things I didn’t know about, sometimes I enjoy reviewing in a condensed form what I already knew about.

There you have it! Let me know if you do these on your blog and I’ll come see what you have to say.

Christmas Grief

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I first wrote this three years ago, but I’ve reposted it before and am doing so again this year, because it seems like almost every year I run into someone having a hard time over the holidays, and maybe this will help. I’ve edited it a bit so the time frames are current.
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Grave at Christmas

December could be a rather gloomy month for my family. My mother passed away Dec. 10 eight years ago, my father Dec. 12 fifteen years ago, and my grandmother Christmas Eve a few years prior to that, leading my brother to exclaim once that he just wanted to cancel the whole month. In more recent years the husband of a good college friend passed away in December 21 on our anniversary, and our family dog died the same day.

The death of a loved any any time of year can shadow the whole Christmas season as we miss our normal interactions with that loved one, and several years later, though maybe the pangs aren’t quite as sharp, they’re still there, and it’s not abnormal to be caught off guard by a memory or a longing leading to a good crying jag.

When someone is grieving over the holidays, they may not want to participate in some of the “normal” happy pastimes. It’s not that they don’t ever laugh or enjoy gatherings. But as Sherry said yesterday, “I am enjoying the traditional holiday celebrations, and at the same time they move me to tears, sad tears for things that have been lost this year. I am singing the music, and yet I’m tired of the froth of jingling bells and pa-rumpumpum.” I remember almost wishing that we still observed periods of mourning with wearing black or some sign of “Grief in progress” — not to rain on anyone else’s good time, but just to let people know there was woundedness under the surface, and just as physical wounds need tenderness while healing, so do emotional ones. Normally I love baby and bridal showers and make it a point to attend, but for several months after my mom’s death I did not want to go to them. I rejoiced with those who rejoiced…but just did not want to rejoice in quite that way. I first heard the news of my mom’s death during our adult Sunday School Christmas party, and the next year I just did not want to attend – the grief was still too close to the surface and would probably erupt in that setting where I first heard the news. Even just three years ago when our ladies’ Christmas party was on the anniversary of my mom’s death, I was concerned that at some point during the evening I would have to find the restroom and lock myself in to release some tears (though thankfully that did not happen).

Other events can cast a pall over Christmas: illness, job loss, a family estrangement, etc. One Christmas we were all sick as dogs, and my father-in-law had just had a major health crisis and wanted us to come up from SC to ID to visit. There was just no way we could drag ourselves onto a plane until antibiotics had kicked in a few days later, but we did go, and if I remember correctly, that was the last time any of us except my husband saw him alive, so in retrospect we were glad we went, though it wasn’t the merriest of Christmases. A good friend grieved over “ruining” her family’s Christmas by being in the hospital with a severe kidney infection. Lizzie wrote about visiting her husband in prison for Christmas. Quilly commented yesterday about being homeless one Christmas. Yet both Lizzie and Quilly mentioned reasons for rejoicing in the midst of those circumstances.

If you’re grieving this Christmas, don’t feel guilty if you’re not quite into the “froth” this year.  One quote I shared on a Week In Words post earlier had to do with giving yourself time to heal. On the other hand, there may be times to go through with the holiday festivities for family’s sake — and, truly, those times can help keep you from the doldrums. Sherry shared how making a list of reasons to celebrate Christmas helped. Look for the good things to rejoice in. Don’t let the grief turn you into a Scrooge who hates Christmas: your loved one who is gone probably wouldn’t want that to happen. I think they’d probably prefer that you  enjoy the best parts of the season while still remembering them in it. E-mom left a valuable comment yesterday that we can treasure up the memories of good Christmases to tide us over the not so good ones, and then look forward to better things ahead. And as I said yesterday, remember that the first Christmas was not all about the froth, either, but was messy, lonely, and painful, yet out of it was born the Savior of the world and the hope of mankind. Rejoice in that hope and promise. Draw near to Him who has borne our griefs and carries our sorrows until grief and sorrow are done away forever.

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Let the Stable Still Astonish

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Let the Stable Still Astonish

Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,

And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: “Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place”?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
of our hearts and says, “Yes,
let the God of Heaven and Earth
be born here–
in this place.”– Leslie Leyland Fields

Happy Thanksgiving!

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So much to be thankful for –

God, all of His wonderful attributes, His lovingkindness towards us in making us, providing for us, sending His Son to die for us, loving us still when we fail..

His Word to instruct, guide, encourage us

Family near and far

Friends old and new

The fellowship of believers

Food, shelter, safety, necessities of life

“Extra” blessings of books, music, chocolate, the Internet, senses, useful occupations and enjoyable diversions

More blessings than we can count…

Though we are to give thanks every day in all things, it’s nice to have a special time of emphasis to remind us of it and revive thankfulness in our lives.

I hope you have a wonderful day with loved ones and good food and a time of pondering and thanking God for all He has provided.

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For All The Blessings Of The Year

For all the blessings of the year,
For all the friends we hold so dear,
For peace on earth, both far and near,
We thank Thee, Lord.

For life and health, those common things,
Which every day and hour brings,
For home, where our affection clings,
We thank Thee, Lord.

For love of Thine, which never tires,
Which all our better thought inspires,
And warms our lives with heavenly fires,
We thank Thee, Lord.

~ Author unknown

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More Thanksgiving reading from Stray Thoughts:

Thanksgiving devotional reading.
Thanksgiving Bible Study
Some Thanksgiving quotes are here.
More Thanksgiving quotes are here.
Thanksgiving “funnies” are here and A “Redneck Thanksgiving” is here.
Thanksgiving poems are here and More Thanksgiving poems are here.
Graphic courtesy of Julia Bettencourt

Thanksgiving Bible Study

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This is a Bible study on Thanksgiving I did a few years ago. It is by no means an exhaustive study: it’s just a result of looking up “thanks” and “thanksgiving” in an online concordance. Many of the passages would fit under multiple headings and I am sure there are others that could be added. But this is a good start. It would be profitable to study many of these verses within the context of the passages they came from.

And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will. Leviticus 22:29.

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7.

It is a sacrifice:

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Hebrews 13:15.

It is often a testimony to others of God’s person and work:

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. Psalm 26:7

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. Psalm 69:30-31.

Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf. II Corinthians 1:11.

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. II Corinthians 4:15.

For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men; And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. II Corinthians 9:12-14.

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Revelation 7:11-12.

Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. I Chronicles 16: 8-9.

And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. I Chronicles 16:35.

So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations. Psalm 79:13.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most high: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:1-2.

Often coupled with joy and singing:

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps. Nehemiah 12:27.

Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. I Chronicles 16: 8-9.

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:2-4.

Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God. Psalm 147:6.

Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. Psalm 18:49

Psalm 93:1-3;

Often coupled with prayer:

Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 50:14-15.

I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. Psalm 116:17.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7.

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2.

Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Ephesians 1:16.

A result of meditating on God’s Word:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:16-17.

A result of being filled with the Spirit:

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Ephesians 5:18-21.

Reasons to thank the Lord:

It’s commanded:

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:4.

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2.
His greatness, His creation:

O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Psalm 95: 1-5

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. Psalm 107:21-22.

His comfort:

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Isaiah 51: 3.

His bountiful supply:

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. II Corinthians 9:11.
His unspeakable gift:

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. II Corinthians 9:15.

Meat:

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. I Timothy 4:3-5; Matthew 15:36

Deliverance from enemies:

And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies: thou also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name. II Samuel 22:49-50

And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. I Chronicles 16:35.

Psalm 18:48-50

His goodness:

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. I Chronicles 16:34; Ezra 3:11; Psalm 106:1; 107:1; 118:1, 29; 136.

His holiness:

Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Psalm 30:4.

His deliverance from sorrow:

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. Psalm 30:11-12

His righteous judgments:

At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. Psalm 119: 62.

Victory over death:

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15:56-57.

Causing us to triumph, making Himself known through us:

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. II Corinthians 2:14.

His working through other people:

But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. II Corinthians 8:16.

Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Ephesians 1:16.

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints. Col. 1:2-4

I Thessalonians 1:1-3; 3:9-10; II Thessalonians 2:13-14.

Saving us:

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-14.

All things:

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20.

In everything:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5:18.

Authorities:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. I Timothy 2:1-3.

His power and reign:

Saying, We give thee thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned Revelation 11:17.

Results in worship:

And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:9-11.

Other passages:

Psalm 105:1-3