Thanksgiving

Does anyone else feel like the Thanksgiving holiday may get overlooked?? Halloween is hardly over and the stores have up Christmas decorations and have fall decorations 75% off and we still have weeks to go before Thanksgiving. I have to confess that I have often not given much other thought about Thanksgiving beyond remembering to think about what I'm thankful for, the family getting together and eating too much.

Well, this year the reality of why we really celebrate Thanksgiving has really struck me. Who are we thanking? Why are we thankful? Who were the Pilgrims? Where did they come from? Why did they leave there? These are some questions that have been looming in my mind.

Of course I know about the Pilgrims sailing on the Mayflower and the Indians that helped them, but who really were these pilgrims?? Why did they come to America? How can I teach our children about this important holiday?

I found a wonderful resource on FamilyLifeToday. They had a weeks worth of a "history" lesson on the spiritual and historical heritage of the Thanksgiving holiday. In fact, I actually was directed to a gem of a book/audio book to go along with this. Barbara Rainey wrote this for her children to teach them the real meaning behind Thanksgiving.


In listening to our heritage as Americans, it is mind-boggling to think where we started and what those before us went through to gain the freedoms and luxuries we now have. Our freedom has come through much suffering and sacrifice by many of our ancestors.

I would encourage you to go to FamilyLifeToday and listen to the audio series on Thanksgiving (dated Nov.10-13,2008). It is a reminder of why these Pilgrims came to America (to be able to worship God) and why they stayed. There are some things that either I forgot or learned for the first time on how God's hand was in what happened with the Pilgrims. For example, the land that the pilgrims came to (Plymouth) had previously belonged to a tribe of brutal Indians. These Indians killed all white men they came in contact with. Well, 4 years before the Pilgrims landed, a plague wiped out all of the indian village (except for 1 indian named Squanto who had been taken captive earlier and brought to England). For the 4 years before the Pilgrims came, no other Indian tribe attempted to take over the land because they were afraid of the plague. So, the land was unowned. And, the relationship of the Pilgrims with the Indians of the area is more evidence of God's interventions. These Indians taught the Pilgrims how to live in this land. Unlike the settlers of Jamestown who were most reliant upon ships from England for their survival, the Pilgrims were able to work the land and get their food and supplies from what was around them. Unlike Jamestown who lost 90% of it's population in the first year, Plymouth lost 50%. By the time the first harvest came, the Pilgrims had much they wanted to Praise God for.

Abraham Lincoln was the first President to declare Thanksgiving a national day "of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father." Here is the text of Lincoln's proclamation:
By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union. (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler)

So, as Thanksgiving approaches, I have an encouraged heart. The Lord is with those who call on His name. As the Pilgrims read on the day they landed at Plymouth, Psalm 100 reads:
"Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting, And His faithfulness to all generations."

I would LOVE to hear comments on what my blog readers are thankful for!!
Happy Thanksgiving!!