The Pilgrims reached America in 1620. That first winter, many of those first settlers died. Fortunately, the next harvest was quite substantial and called for a celebration. Tradition maintains that the event included 91 Indians who’d helped thirteen Pilgrims narrowly survive the harsh New England winter.
That first Thanksgiving feast was initially established as a celebration and as a thanksgiving to God for His many blessings in helping them to safely come to the new world and establish their new homes and survive the difficult conditions.
I doubt that their first dinner resembled our modern Thanksgiving meal. For one, it lasted three days, and I doubt that mashed potatoes, dressing, and cranberry sauce, served on fine china along with a choice bottle of fine wine were on the table, but there were probably plenty of dried cod, eels, mussels, wild turkeys, Guinea fowl, clams, beetroot, wild onions, maize, squash, venison, duck, swans, and goose, berries, grains, and maybe some fruit including pumpkins and perhaps in addition to spring water there was even some home brew and/or wine.
They played games and exhibited shooting skills, the Indians with their bows and the pilgrims with their muskets, but there were no college or NFL games on big screen TV’s and no couches to fall asleep while watching the games and digesting massive amounts of food. And there were no “Black Friday” shopping sprees to the local malls.
It is refreshing to me that the pilgrims saw fit to set aside a day of Thanksgiving for something they deemed to be “blessings from God almighty”. Their “blessings” would be viewed by today’s society to be austere and poverty to the extreme and today many who found themselves in similar dire straits would shake their fist at God, march down the dirt roads to the community square, urinate and defecate in the street, march with signs, and fight the authorities for what they deem as society and God “treating them so shabbily”.
Not to these people, they were very thankful to God for everything He had given them. It is the essence of what I think we should feel on Thanksgiving Day regardless of our circumstance.
I attended Grandparent’s Day and Thanksgiving celebration at my twin granddaughter’s Christian school. This school unashamedly integrates God into their curriculum and in fact the program began with a prayer and ended with a prayer. We also stood and said the pledge of allegiance, (and unlike President Obama we put our hands over our hearts and included “One nation under God” when we recited it).
I was very proud of my son and his lovely wife for choosing this school. If I ever were to found my own private Christian school, I would model it after this one. One banner that I saw displayed throughout the campus alluded to one of the three ingredients that I evaluate for success: JOY. Their banner states:
J- Jesus
O- Others
Y – Yourself
Yes, we should put Jesus first in our lives and next would come others, and then both go before yourself. How ironic is that for an acronym? It’s straight out of the Bible and a perfect Thanksgiving Day message and a perfect way to ultimately find joy in our lives.
Did you know that it is estimated that 1/3 of the people on this planet have never used a telephone? Most of them don’t have electricity or clean running water. I visited India and was told that hundreds of millions of people survive there on less than one penny per day; many children there and around the world are literally starving to death every day. Arab countries routinely persecute Christians and martyr them for even owning a Bible and certainly for sharing the Gospel with others.
How it must grieve God to look at this blessed land and see so many ignore His blessings and really not even give Him a thought as they head out for their latest protest, the golf course, or malls.
Don’t be one of them. Find a quiet place somewhere and get down on your knees sometime this weekend and spend some quality time thanking Jesus for all that He has blessed you with; also remember others who are less fortunate and cannot afford a turkey or even pay their light bill. (Can you help anyone out this weekend? Probably – if you would only spend some time on it). Go visit a friend in the hospital – My Dad will spend his Thanksgiving there. It grieves me for him to be alone on this blessed day; I wish it wasn’t so far from my home.
Hey, put yourself on the back burner for a couple of hours and see if the Spirit of God doesn’t stir your mind and soul. Share in His rest over this weekend and put some JOY and LOVE in your heart by thanking God for your blessings and help someone in need over the holidays.
Yes take some time for yourself and by all means do as I intend to do and enjoy your family, celebrate your good fortune to be blessed to live in this great land, (in spite of her difficult problems), and most importantly do engage in the double stuffing – Stuff your turkey and then stuff yourself silly. Diets can wait!
Gobble gobble…
Acts 20:35
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”