This morning I’ve been scanning travel reports, and sampling statistics from the AAA, the US Department of Transportation, various news services, and a couple of insurance carriers.

My conclusion – best guess – is that around 40-million Americans are heading “over the river and through the woods (to grandmother’s house we go),” by car this Thanksgiving. An additional 4.5 million Americans will travel by air, rail, bus, and cruise ship.

All told, we’ll cover a staggering 260,834,000,000 collective miles. That’s “twenty-six billion, eight hundred thirty-four million” for those of you who prefer to read your numbers in words.

WHY? So, why all that effort, that expense of gas, tickets, hotels, restaurants, rentals, days off from work and more?

Well, it’s quite simple. We’re a grateful nation.

No, really. At our core as a people, I believe there is a collective awareness of our unique blessings, and of the privilege that is ours to live in this land of peace and plenty.

I believe that we’d gladly log in 500-billion miles, if that’s what it took to sit around a table with people we love, and raise our glasses to providence.

THANKFUL FOR/TO WHAT? Well, that’s the question, now isn’t it.

“I’m not sure that I believe in God,” someone once wrote to me. “Can’t I simply be grateful? Isn’t it enough that I am?”

“Gratitude is a great start,” I responded. “But what’s ‘enough’ is that God believes in you and in me. That’s what we mean when we say that Jesus is Sufficient. ‘My Grace is sufficient for you'” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

” What’s ‘enough’ is that God believes in us. That’s what we mean when we say that Jesus is Sufficient. ‘My Grace is sufficient for you'” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

I believe that gratitude, thankfulness, on the level both experienced and expressed by so many tens of millions during this week’s feasting, is a collective nod of invitation to understand the rest of the story.

OPEN JUST A CRACK: Between now and Christmas Day there is a measurable shift in this nation in terms of openness to The Greatest Story Ever Told.

It’s not so much that the door is wide open, but that there is a crack in the resistance so many people cultivate that keeps all things spiritual at arm’s length.

For me, this “softening” is a reminder that the message I share needs to remain generous, genuine, and rooted in love.

Because I am convinced that all these tens of millions of people aren’t traveling twenty-six billion miles to break bread with tens more millions of people so they can pig out and get laid to waste by the tryptophan…

No, these are a great cloud of witnesses to the deeply held yearning in all people to reconnect to their Creator.

The spirit of Thanksgiving is a response rooted in our essential nature. To the extent that we do this, with such enthusiasm and faithfulness, I believe we are already beginning to say “Yes,” to God.

In gratitude, promise, and hope – DEREK