Line upon Line

Thank heaven for Thanksgiving! A time to pause, take a deep breath and step away from all the negative news, contentious political rhetoric and constant dissension … it is time to be thankful!

For many of us Thanksgiving seems to fill our longing for simpler times. Perhaps it’s because we gravitate to familiar surroundings and family traditions that hold a special place in our hearts and memories.

But whatever the reason, Thanksgiving Day (the heaviest traveled day of the year) brings people together in the spirit of love and gratitude for Heavenly Father’s bounteous blessings. In my opinion, it doesn’t get better than that!

For generations, the planning and anticipation of preparing this great feast has hardly changed. I believe for most of us, adults and children alike, the excitement surrounding the preparations is as fun and enjoyable as the dinner itself!

There are glasses and silverware that need to be cleaned and polished. Down comes the best china from the top shelf. Tablecloths come out of storage, special centerpieces are prepared, and pies baked. With extra table leaves and extra chairs, our Thanksgiving tables are stretched to their fullest capacity ready to share old memories and make new ones.

Now Thank We All Our God

Over the years, at 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.

Even after years of this tradition, 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 29^th 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

Although Americans traditionally recognize the Pilgrim’s thanksgiving celebration as the “First Thanksgiving,” it never became an annual event. But it did lead to other times of feasting and thanksgiving among the early colonists, especially during the American Revolution.

But it wasn’t until British General John Burgoyne surrendered to General Washington at Saratoga, New York, in October 1777, that the Continental Congress along with General George Washington, Commander of the Continental Army, decreed December 18, 1777 as America’s first national Thanksgiving Day.

However twelve years later, on October 3, 1789, the now President Washington issued a Presidential Proclamation designating Thursday, November 26, a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be,” and for blessing and affording Americans “an opportunity to peaceably establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Not wanting to ignore the authority of state governments, President Washington requested the governors announce and make official the national day for thanksgiving within their states. Soon newspapers throughout the country had published the proclamation and public celebrations were being held. Washington himself noted the day by attending St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City, and by donating beer and food to imprisoned debtors.

Considering today’s ongoing efforts to erode America’s civil and religious liberties, I can’t think of a more perfect time than this Thanksgiving to share this great and historic Proclamation.

Although there are varying opinions and great discord as to the proper role of religion in politics, President Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation is evidence of how naturally the two have existed together, and that the Founding Fathers never questioned that relationship.

Furthermore, while church and state are separate, this Proclamation supports––and correctly so––the fact that the framers of our great constitution believed that religion and politics actually prop each other up.

General Thanksgiving

By The President of The United States of America,

A PROCLAMATION

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine (1789). 

George Washington

I have a loved family heirloom that I bring out at the beginning of every November. It’s an old Ideals Thanksgiving magazine. I have had it and planned my family Thanksgiving celebrations from its wonderful pages for at least 35 years.

The cover, now bulging, is barely able to hold the many treasures I’ve added from over the years. It is stuffed with old place cards, homemade hand illustrated Thanksgiving songbooks lovingly drawn by my children when they were small. Past Thanksgiving newspaper articles, poems, stories … it’s all there.

This year I will add yet another item to its priceless content. I am going to print out a copy of George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation for every person that will gather at our table and ask the patriarch of our family to read it.

Then we will conclude with the beautiful words of the psalmist from Psalms 95.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Oh come; let us sing unto the Lord:
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
And make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God,
And a great King above all gods.
In His hands are the deep places of the earth:
The strength of the hills is His also.

The sea is His, and He made it:
And His hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down:
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

For He is our God;
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.

What glorious and comforting thoughts to end the day.