I am so grateful that Thanksgiving is almost here!
It is time to turn our thoughts to God’s goodness, and away from negative rhetoric.
We need to be with family and friends, talk about life’s joys and blessings take a break from politics give thanks, and enjoy some turkey and trimmings. Sounds blissful and healing to me.
This has been a really hard year for most Americans.
This Country has suffered debilitating financial debt, economic instability, high unemployment, tremendous political dissapointments, the disintegration of family values, virulent attacks on life-defining social and religious issues and many of our fellow countrymen are weary, discouraged and homeless from the ravages of recent storms. And hovering all around us is the uncertainly of what the future will bring.
We Gather Together
However, Americans like the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony tend to be optimistic, in spite of their sufferings.
According to Rasmussen’s Lifestyle report and survey “most Americans believe these are tough times, but its citizens still say overwhelmingly 83% that they have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.”
In fact in the same survey, it shows that 58% of Americans regard Thanksgiving as one of the nations’ most important holidays.
And according to a new AAA survey, just out this week, almost 44 million people will travel fifty miles or more to a Thanksgiving gathering this year. That number is up from last year regardless of high gasoline prices.
So rest assured that come Thanksgiving Day, Americans will gather together in homes and facilities all across this great land, in the spirit of thankfulness, even though tattered and torn from trials and adversity. That’s America! That’s who we are!
We will gather together because of tradition, love, human kindness and hope.
Tradition is what brings us together and gives us emotional stability. Think about American life without the traditional holidays and events we love to celebrate.
No more Thanksgiving Day gatherings or Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, nor picnics, celebrations or fireworks on the Fourth of July. No more carved pumpkins or trick-or-treators on Halloween night etc., etc.
Life as we know it in this Country, just wouldn’t be the same without the bonding and memory-making opportunities these holidays provide.
The love of family, and the continual outpouring of concern and kindness to all people the world over is what makes America the greatest Nation on God’s green earth!
We, Americans, are a good and caring people with loving and generous hearts despite our differences. Besides, I believe these very differences give this Country its depth and sparkle!
But it is constant hope in the hearts of so many good people, that the Hand of God will bless us as a Nation and individually, which sustains this Country through hardships.
Now Thank We All Our God
Over the years, for our Thanksgiving gatherings, we have had different family members, or guests, read the First Thanksgiving Proclamation penned by Governor William Bradford to the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, on November 29th, 1623.
And still, each time I read or listen to these words, I feel the spirit and intent of that great celebration come to life all over again.
To All Ye Pilgrims
Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12, in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
William Bradford,
Ye Governor of ye Colony
New Found Friends
History is vague regarding the exact date Governor Bradford chose for what we call the First Thanksgiving.
But once the date for feasting was announced, hunters blanketed the woods returning with wild turkeys, wood pigeons, partridges, geese and ducks adding to their abundant harvest of corn, squash, beans, barley and peas.
The Indians, once considered to be a threat to the young and sparse colony, were heartily welcomed and came 100 Pokanoket braves bearing half-dozen deer for the feast, and introduced the Pilgrims to the delicacy of oysters.
Many strong and lasting friendships,between these two profoundly different cultures and people, were formed during that first Thanksgiving. Which, by the way, went on for three days!
“For the Pilgrims, some of whom had slept in a wigwam and all of whom had enjoyed eating and drinking with the Indians during that First Thanksgiving, these were not a despicable pack of barbarians (even if some of their habits, such as their refusal to wear clothes, struck them as “savage”); these were human beings, much like themselves very trust [worth] y, quick of apprehension, ripe witted, just.” (Edward Winslow, Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick, p.119)
A Timely Opportunity
With all the divisiveness and negativity that pervades this Country right now, perhaps this Thanksgiving is the opportune time to follow the example of our Pilgrim ancestors.
Let’s open wide the doors of our homes, share our feast and prayers of gratitude with as many as possible friend and those perceived as foe.
To quote a great man, “Let’s reach across the street to that neighbor with the other yard sign . . .people in good faith . . .” and invite them into our homes. (Mitt Romney, Presidential campaign, 2012)
Be it for dinner, a delicious piece of homemade pie, or a cup of steaming hot cider, let’s come together in the name of peace, and in gratitude.
Then maybe, just maybe, we too might be pleasantly surprised and find that no matter how profound our differences, we can be friends.
Oh, may our bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us.
(Martin Rinkhart, 1586)
Happy Thanksgiving!
