On this,
my 70th Thanksgiving, my thoughts, as usual,
drift back through the annals of history to
recount the narrative of this holiday that
really defines the spirit of America. Every
American who cherishes our Judeo-Christian
saga should ensure that they spend some time
this Thanksgiving season recounting with their
families the God-inspired history of
Thanksgiving in our nation.
In 1623, the notion of Thanksgiving was born
as Gov. William Bradford declared: "Inasmuch
as the great Father has given us this year an
abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas,
beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and
has made the forests to abound with game and
the 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 ye 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
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."
In 1789, military hero George Washington was
serving as America's first president. In the
midst of the pressures of this arduous job,
the new president, recalling the many
blessings on the young nation, declared that
America should honor God with a National Day
of Thanksgiving.
In October 1863, with our nation embroiled in
a bitter conflict that set brother against
brother, President Abraham Lincoln gave
Thanksgiving its first official time of honor,
as he proclaimed the last Thursday in November
as Thanksgiving Day.
"No human counsel hath devised nor hath any
mortal hand worked out these great things,"
President Lincoln wrote in his proclamation.
"They are the gracious gifts of the Most High
God, who, while dealing with us in anger for
our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they
should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully
acknowledged as with one heart and one voice
by the whole American People. I do therefore
invite my fellow citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those who are at sea
and those who are sojourning in foreign lands,
to set apart and observe the last Thursday of
November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and
Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth
in the Heavens."
What truly inspiring words these are. And they
remain pertinent today as our nation is
embroiled in a different kind of war.
President Lincoln continued: "And I recommend
to them that while offering up the ascriptions
justly due to Him for such singular
deliverances and blessings, they do also, with
humble penitence for our national perverseness
and disobedience, commend to His tender care
all those who have become widows, orphans,
mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil
strife in which we are unavoidably engaged,
and fervently implore the interposition of the
Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore it as soon as may be consistent
with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment
of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."
Several presidents later issued Thanksgiving
proclamations, a few of which I wish to
highlight.
On Thanksgiving Day 1898, President William
McKinley issued this proclamation: "The skies
have been for a time darkened by the cloud of
war, but as we were compelled to take up the
sword in the cause of humanity we are
permitted to rejoice that the conflict has
been of brief duration and the losses we have
had to mourn, though grievous and important,
have been so few, considering the great
results accomplished, as to inspire us with
gratitude and praise to the Lord of Hosts
...."
On Thanksgiving Day 1917, President Woodrow
Wilson issued this proclamation: "It has long
been the honored custom of our people to turn
in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise
and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many
blessings and mercies to us as a nation. That
custom we can follow now even in the midst of
the tragedy of a world shaken by war and
immeasurable
disaster, in the midst of sorrow and great
peril, because even amidst the darkness that
has gathered about us we can see the great
blessings God has bestowed upon us, blessings
that are better than mere peace of mind and
prosperity of enterprise."
On Thanksgiving Day 1943, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt issued this proclamation: "God's
help to us has been great in this year of
march towards world-wide liberty. In
brotherhood with warriors of other United
Nations our gallant men have won victories,
have freed our homes from fear, have made
tyranny tremble, and have laid the foundation
for freedom of life in a world which will be
free."
And in 2001, President George W. Bush issued
his proclamation, saying: "In thankfulness and
humility, we acknowledge, especially now, our
dependence on One greater than ourselves. On
this day of Thanksgiving, let our thanksgiving
be revealed in the compassionate support we
render to our fellow citizens who are grieving
unimaginable loss (of September 11); and let
us reach out with care to those in need of
food, shelter, and words of hope. May Almighty
God, who is our refuge and our strength in
this time of trouble, watch over our homeland,
protect us, and grant us patience, resolve,
and wisdom in all that is to come."
As we celebrate Thanksgiving in 2003, we are
witnessing the most aggressive assault on
Judeo-Christian values our nation has ever
seen. It is imperative that those who love
this nation recall the history of Thanksgiving
so that future generations will be able to
defend this God-inspired holiday against those
forces that wish to force upon us a totally
secular society.
This Thanksgiving, may we make II Chronicles
7:14 our total objective as we strive to
preserve the Judeo-Christian principles that
formed and safeguarded this nation: "If my
people, which are called by my name, shall
humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their
wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and
will forgive their sin, and will heal their
land."
Contributed by Sandra S.