In the very early hours of Thanksgiving morning, before even going to sleep, I was walking my Toby and reflecting on the beauty of the starry sky. That was the beginning of my Thanksgiving Day.
It was a perfectly peaceful beginning to a day of giving thanks to God for family and friends and all things that He has given me, both tangible and intangible. As I thanked God for the sky full of stars
that I could see despite the pollution of city lights, I thought about how far our country has drifted from that first Thanksgiving celebration, and I thought about how far our own family traditions have often drifted from the original themes and purposes of Thanksgiving.
History.com provides a great article on the origins of Thanksgiving. I have included a few excerpts from this article below to educate you and give you an idea of what we should be striving for in our celebration of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving at Plymouth
It was a perfectly peaceful beginning to a day of giving thanks to God for family and friends and all things that He has given me, both tangible and intangible. As I thanked God for the sky full of stars
that I could see despite the pollution of city lights, I thought about how far our country has drifted from that first Thanksgiving celebration, and I thought about how far our own family traditions have often drifted from the original themes and purposes of Thanksgiving.
History.com provides a great article on the origins of Thanksgiving. I have included a few excerpts from this article below to educate you and give you an idea of what we should be striving for in our celebration of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving at Plymouth
In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days.
Thanksgiving Becomes an Official Holiday
Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest and prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlements as well. During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. His successors John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their presidencies.
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition. In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians. Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
What really sticks out to me about the history of Thanksgiving celebrations is that they were prompted by times of hardship. The pilgrims suffered unimaginable pain and hardship on their journey to the New World, and upon arriving in this new land, they were faced with the uncertainty of how to survive in an unfamiliar environment. But then, they were blessed to receive help from strangers...the natives. After much instruction and perseverance, they saw a successful harvest and came together with their new found friends to celebrate the blessings that God had heaped upon them.
The next year, when faced with the hardships of a brutal winter, their leader calls for a time of fasting. In the Bible, we are given the example of fasting as a practice that shows our submission to God and our desperation for God to do His work and lend His wisdom to our hearts and our circumstances. I imagine that during this time of fasting, the pilgrims must have remembered how far they had come, how much they had suffered, and how God always cared for them and never let them down. Finally, the trying season ended and they again offered their thanks to God.
In 2 Chronicles 20, we see how the children of Israel dealt with circumstances similar to those that the pilgrims were faced with there first few years in a new land.
1 After this, the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites[a] declared war on Jehoshaphat. 2 Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army from Edom[b] is marching against you from beyond the Dead Sea.[c] They are already at Hazazon-tamar.” (This was another name for En-gedi.)
3 Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance. He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting. 4 So people from all the towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord’s help.
5 Jehoshaphat stood before the community of Judah and Jerusalem in front of the new courtyard at the Temple of the Lord. 6 He prayed, “O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you! 7 O our God, did you not drive out those who lived in this land when your people Israel arrived? And did you not give this land forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham? 8 Your people settled here and built this Temple to honor your name. 9 They said, ‘Whenever we are faced with any calamity such as war,[d] plague, or famine, we can come to stand in your presence before this Temple where your name is honored. We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.’
10 “And now see what the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir are doing. You would not let our ancestors invade those nations when Israel left Egypt, so they went around them and did not destroy them. 11 Now see how they reward us! For they have come to throw us out of your land, which you gave us as an inheritance. 12 O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.”
13 As all the men of Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, wives, and children, 14 the Spirit of the Lord came upon one of the men standing there. His name was Jahaziel son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite who was a descendant of Asaph.
15 He said, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow, march out against them. You will find them coming up through the ascent of Ziz at the end of the valley that opens into the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord’s victory. He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you!”
18 Then King Jehoshaphat bowed low with his face to the ground. And all the people of Judah and Jerusalem did the same, worshiping the Lord. 19 Then the Levites from the clans of Kohath and Korah stood to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud shout.
20 Early the next morning the army of Judah went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. On the way Jehoshaphat stopped and said, “Listen to me, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in his prophets, and you will succeed.”
21 After consulting the people, the king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army, singing to the Lord and praising him for his holy splendor. This is what they sang:
“Give thanks to the Lord his faithful love endures forever!”
22 At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves. 23 The armies of Moab and Ammon turned against their allies from Mount Seir and killed every one of them. After they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began attacking each other. 24 So when the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point in the wilderness, all they saw were dead bodies lying on the ground as far as they could see. Not a single one of the enemy had escaped.
25 King Jehoshaphat and his men went out to gather the plunder. They found vast amounts of equipment, clothing,[e] and other valuables—more than they could carry. There was so much plunder that it took them three days just to collect it all! 26 On the fourth day they gathered in the Valley of Blessing, which got its name that day because the people praised and thanked the Lord there. It is still called the Valley of Blessing today.
Wow! What a victory! Look what thankfulness can do! The celebration of Thanksgiving is meant to be a monument to the Lord! A landmark for us to look back and remember all that the Lord has done for us. This is what Thanksgiving is about!
After the Civil War, President Lincoln made Thanksgiving officially a national holiday. Again we see that after a time of severe hardship and the devastation of the war, where brother fought against brother and father against son, the leader of our country was prompted to call for an official celebration of Thanksgiving. I love what Abe Lincoln said as he called the nation to come together in unity once again and give thanks to the Lord. How we need to repeat those words: Lord, heal our nation's wounds!
I can't help but see the shift in focus as we look at FDR's ploy to spur retail sales and boost the economy by moving up the date of the official Thanksgiving holiday. The Great Depression was another time of suffering and hardship, but I wonder how much of it was brought on by our new found dependence on things instead of God!! If I might conjecture, I would say that it was definitely a self-made suffering. Can you see how this dependence on things has spread and deepened over the years!? Can you see the difference in thought here? FDR thought that moving up Thanksgiving would help to fix the nation's troubles, to stop the suffering. The original meaning of Thanksgiving was lost. It had become a commercialized prelude to Christmas, a season of buying, spending, and economical stimulation!
This year, our country didn't even spend a whole day giving thanks! At 10pm on Thanksgiving evening, stores all over the country opened their doors to offer loads of deals to eager shoppers. What ever happened to being thankful for what little we may have? What ever happened to spending time with our families and thanking God for food on the table, a roof over our heads, and another year of life and breath...no matter how difficult it may have been? What ever happened to being thankful for a Savior, a firm foundation upon which to stand when the rest of the world is shaking?
I must admit, our Thanksgiving celebration was not perfect. We tend to struggle a bit under the influence of our society. We struggle to keep our focus on what is important. Our families celebrate Thanksgiving in much different ways. Some in our family help us to stay focused on what giving thanks is all about, while others promote the image of Thanksgiving accepted by our society. I had hoped that we could remain completely Christ centered this Thanksgiving, but alas, we did get caught up in some of the commercialism. God forgive us!
However, I try to bring myself back to that moment in the early morning hours when I stood under the stars and thanked God for the beauty and for His sweet presence! That is what Thanksgiving is about. Whether or not we celebrate Thanksgiving as an official holiday, we should cultivate gratitude in our hearts toward the Lord of All Creation! He knows what He is doing, and He is in control. For that we can be truly thankful!
I realize that much of this reflection upon Thanksgiving has been critical and negative sounding, but despite all of this critical reflection, I would like to express what a wonderful Thanksgiving it was. We were so blessed to be able to celebrate with our families and enjoy two wonderful meals!
Here is a glimpse into our Thanksgiving Celebrations:
