Happy Thanksgiving

1Praise the LORD, O my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

² Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits-

³ who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

⁴ who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Imagine yourself with the Pilgrims after finishing the TWO MONTH journey across the ocean. That first winter, within 3 months, HALF of the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower died. Starvation, scurvy and varieties of other illnesses took men, women and children’s lives.

The following Spring they made contact with the Native Indians, who taught them how to harvest and catch food — thus preserving their lives. And even this part of the story is remarkable! Squanto, the name that litters children’s Thanksgiving literature, had been taken as a slave from his home years before. (I wish I could get HIS story on the Pearl Girl blog. I would love to see how God changed his heart from bitterness and resentment to serving these newcomers after a story like that!) God had provided Squanto not only an escape from slavery, and way back to America, but also to learn about Christ and accept Him.

As the first Thanksgiving rolled around, only four adult women were left alive. (WOAH.)

In comparison to the average American today, the Pilgrims didn’t have much to speak of. They had lost family and friends, most of their possessions stayed in Europe and they had experienced the most lean meals we could imagine. But, wonderfully, our God commands us to give thanks and have our joy fulfilled in HIM despite tragedy.

(Pretty far from the ridiculous,lavish memories I recalled above, huh?! And yet so much more rich in the Lord!) The Pilgrims and Native Americans focused beyond their differences and pain to give thanks to a God who cared about the, took care of them and OBVIOUSLY had a plan for them.

Many years later, President George Washington recommended the national holiday in these words,

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 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 favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced 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 hath 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 unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease 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.