A Thought on Thanksgiving

 Today is Thanksgiving.  A day where 386 years ago, Christian and non-Christian's alike held a feast to thank their Indians friends for helping them survive in the wilderness.  A day where we should get together with as much family as possible, gorge ourselves to the point we can no longer stand and then watch football.  Or at least that is what the world would have us believe.  Now however  I'd like to look at Thanksgiving from a historical perspective about the truth behind Thanksgiving.  Not because food, family and football are bad, but because it's important to remember the true importance of this religious holiday.

 

So as we start lets take a look at some common misconceptions about Thanksgiving.  First, on the Mayflower there were two types of people, Strangers and Separatists.  The strangers were probably Christian men and women as well; they just weren't coming to

America

to avoid the influence of the Church of England.  The Plymouth Colony was settled by a Christian People.  Secondly, I don't believe there is any mention of the term thanksgiving in the day we refer to as thanksgiving.  Now it's true they did give thanks to God at this time but this day is usually referred to as a Feast or a celebration.  The term thanksgiving came into use a year later when the Pilgrims had suffered through a dry spell and damage had occurred to their crops.  Governor William Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer shortly after this rain came and Governor Bradford decreed that November 29^th should be a day of Thanksgiving for all the Good things God had done for them. 

 

After that, Thanksgiving became sporadic, occurring at a local or state level until 1863 shortly after President Lincoln accepted Christ as his Savior and in the midst of the Civil War He set forth a proclamation little looked at and seldom remembered.

Lincoln

set forth Thanksgiving as a National Holiday, A day to give thanks to our Lord.  I'd like to share that Proclamation.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years 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 can not 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 theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the field of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax 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 before. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness 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 in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our 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 this 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, tranquility, and union.

In testimony where of I have here unto set my hand and caused the seal of the

United States

to be affixed.

[Signed]
A. Lincoln"

President Lincoln did not call for a day of Feast, He did not call for a day of family, he probably had never heard of football.  Abraham Lincoln called for on that first thanksgiving a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to God as well as a day of prayer that He may take care of those less fortunate a day of prayer for continued blessings upon this country. 

 

As we sit around the table tomorrow let us remember that although we will be enjoying potatoes and yams, the pilgrims had no potatoes and yams.  We will be enjoying stuffing and fresh breads, yet the pilgrims had no ovens or yeast for these things.  The pilgrims had no pies, no Green Bean Casserole, no Cranberry gel, some historians will argue that they may not even have eaten turkey in this feast.  Yet one thing we share with those Pilgrims is a great and mighty God.  A God who had protected them in a rickety boat, a God who had brought them through a harsh winter, and a God who had provided them with a rich bounty.  Today we share that same God the God of the Pilgrims and the God of Abraham Lincoln watches over us still and still contuse to rein his blessings down on us, and this undeserving nation.