2020 has been a year of unexpected twists and turns with COVID-19. From a deputation standpoint, 6 months with no meetings with half of our meetings canceled seems like nothing but discouragement! This week is Thanksgiving week and we are being encouraged to be thankful from a distance because the virus is increasing. Did I mention that we all need to wear masks?
All this going on and Thanksgiving is still upon us. When I got to thinking about the history of Thanksgiving in America... Then my perspective started to change.
The inexperienced pilgrims from England arrived in a barren country in late fall and had to quickly prepare for winter . They had primitive shelter, limited food and around 100 mouths to feed. The conditions deteriorated as the winter progressed and nearly half of the population of the settlement died leaving orphans, widows and widowers to face an uncertain spring. William Bradford described it like this:
But that which was most sad and lamentable was that in two or three months’ time half of their company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting [lacking] houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvy and other diseases, which this long voyage and their inaccomodate condition had brought upon them, so as there died sometimes two or three of a day, in the aforesaid time, that of one hundred and odd persons, scarce fifty remained. And of these in the time of most distress, there was but six or seven sound [healthy] persons who, to their great commendations be it spoken, spared no pains, night or day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed [prepared] them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them... -William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1656
As weather improved, the recovery process started. Families had been desolated, care for the children who survived their parents, planning for food and shelter. Not an easy time! By fall or that year, God had provided the Indians to help them prepare better for the coming year. A time of thanksgiving was declared to reflect on the good, not the negative.
In 1863, midway through the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be a national holiday. His words were focused on the civil war but are applicable to our nation today!
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. 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.
As I approach Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the blessings God has given to me and my family. I am thankful that He saw fit to save me and allow me to serve Him. I am thankful for a warm house in which to celebrate Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my family, both immediate and extended. I am thankful for God's provision, direction, protection, grace, mercy, love and the list goes on (and it should!) Yes, we are having hard times this year. but remember, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
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