Next week is Thanksgiving, and time is short for preparing for all the customary details. This year is a little trickier as there will be one dinner at my house, and one on the weekend at Dad’s vacation spot, each with a variation of family attendees. For some time we have already been in discussion of who is bringing what, and where we will be. Our tradition includes gathering, creating a “kid space” for them to run and play, locating the football games on TV, telling all the old (and new) family stories around the table, and scouting out the perfect nap place. One of our best traditions is saying grace, not in the usual way, but by going around the table with each person, young and old, telling what they are thankful for. I am thankful that we are able to get together and spend time visiting, laughing, and playing with the kids. I am thankful for being a part of a family that is unified by our faith in Christ and our desire to follow Him.
While I was preparing for our holiday, I came across a website that gave some great information about the history of Thanksgiving. There I discovered (and rediscovered) a few interesting facts beyond the grade school picture of that first Thanksgiving in 1621 where the Pilgrims and the Indians sat down and shared a meal together. Many people assume that the annual celebration continued from that moment on in its same form. Actually, for some time after that first shared meal, Thanksgiving was loosely celebrated. Eventually the celebration was proclaimed by governors of the colonies who set the date according to their own timing. The first national day of Thanksgiving was established on Dec. 18, 1777 after the American victory at Saratoga, when the Continental Congress declared that “the good people may express the grateful feelings of heir hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor.”
The day before, General George Washington wrote that we should “express our grateful acknowledgements to God.” Then, as president, he set aside the last Thursday in November in 1789 "to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God." The next four Presidents (with the exception of Jefferson) issued their own proclamations of a day of Thanksgiving, and then the tradition temporarily fell back to local communities. It wasn’t until 1863 that the tradition was re-established by Abraham Lincoln, in answer to a letter urging him to set a national day of Thanksgiving. Every President following Lincoln has issued an annual proclamation calling for a day of Thanksgiving to be held on the fourth Thursday of November. I found it very interesting to read the various proclamations, ranging from FDR’s 1933 Depression era message thanking God for His blessings, to Truman’s 1945 message where he celebrates peace and prays that Americans express thanks to God “in our homes and in our places of worship, individually and as groups.”
There is JFK’s 1961 proclamation which begins by quoting Psalm 92:1 saying, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” and then urges all citizens to use the holiday, not just for rest but as a day of contemplation. He asks people to tell the story of Thanksgiving to their children to help them understand our national heritage and the necessity of the blessing of God. Both Bill Clinton’s last and George Bush’s first proclamations recite details of the first Thanksgiving and remind us to be thankful for God’s blessings. (To read these proclamations, go to
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/ThanxProc.htm).
I hope that in preparing your grocery list and your guest list you will also prepare your heart for a time of contemplating all that God has blessed you with. As you make decisions about whether to use the good china or the paper plates, that you will decide to set aside time that day to, as a gathered group, lift up prayers of thankfulness to Almighty God who blesses us, so that we will be a blessing to others.
While I was preparing for our holiday, I came across a website that gave some great information about the history of Thanksgiving. There I discovered (and rediscovered) a few interesting facts beyond the grade school picture of that first Thanksgiving in 1621 where the Pilgrims and the Indians sat down and shared a meal together. Many people assume that the annual celebration continued from that moment on in its same form. Actually, for some time after that first shared meal, Thanksgiving was loosely celebrated. Eventually the celebration was proclaimed by governors of the colonies who set the date according to their own timing. The first national day of Thanksgiving was established on Dec. 18, 1777 after the American victory at Saratoga, when the Continental Congress declared that “the good people may express the grateful feelings of heir hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor.”
The day before, General George Washington wrote that we should “express our grateful acknowledgements to God.” Then, as president, he set aside the last Thursday in November in 1789 "to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God." The next four Presidents (with the exception of Jefferson) issued their own proclamations of a day of Thanksgiving, and then the tradition temporarily fell back to local communities. It wasn’t until 1863 that the tradition was re-established by Abraham Lincoln, in answer to a letter urging him to set a national day of Thanksgiving. Every President following Lincoln has issued an annual proclamation calling for a day of Thanksgiving to be held on the fourth Thursday of November. I found it very interesting to read the various proclamations, ranging from FDR’s 1933 Depression era message thanking God for His blessings, to Truman’s 1945 message where he celebrates peace and prays that Americans express thanks to God “in our homes and in our places of worship, individually and as groups.”
There is JFK’s 1961 proclamation which begins by quoting Psalm 92:1 saying, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” and then urges all citizens to use the holiday, not just for rest but as a day of contemplation. He asks people to tell the story of Thanksgiving to their children to help them understand our national heritage and the necessity of the blessing of God. Both Bill Clinton’s last and George Bush’s first proclamations recite details of the first Thanksgiving and remind us to be thankful for God’s blessings. (To read these proclamations, go to
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/ThanxProc.htm).
I hope that in preparing your grocery list and your guest list you will also prepare your heart for a time of contemplating all that God has blessed you with. As you make decisions about whether to use the good china or the paper plates, that you will decide to set aside time that day to, as a gathered group, lift up prayers of thankfulness to Almighty God who blesses us, so that we will be a blessing to others.
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