Why Thanksgiving Is Vital This Year
Established for national healing.
According to tradition and Wikipedia, the event that Americans know as the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first maize harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and — as recounted by attendee Edward Winslow — was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims.
So much for turkey and pumpkin pie.
Other accounts vary, some diametrically. Less uplifting. Dispensible.
What is agreed upon is that it became a national holiday* only when Abraham Lincoln took the advice of one Sarah Hale, who as an influential women’s magazine editor, saw a time of giving Thanks as a much-needed occasion for truly desperately needed national healing in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Those post-war days of raw emotion split families, not just the states, down the middle.
Look around. Families these days are split politically just like the nation. And to this, we cannot safely gather for that feast with a pandemic lurking as warriors were reported to have done in the woods* outside the Pilgrim camp.
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What do we have to be thankful for? Here is my list:
- This pandemic is not the ‘falling-dead-on-the-street’ variety. Things could look a LOT different.
- The election is over. For better or worse, depending on which side of politics you have parked yourself, time will move forward. Life will go on.
- For all the troubles, there is food on the table for most, and those not having their own can still find many good folks out there seeking to help them out. That is not the norm by any means in this weary world.
- Those who see the merciful hand of the Lord in their lives have a special reason to thank Him. They have the blessing to now become the instruments of that mercy to those whose lives have been torn over this past year.
For those who have had the darkest of years, there is one thing that helps life move on. Gratitude for the people and things we do have has a marvelous soothing effect enabling us to jumpstart our lives back toward hope.
And hope springs eternal. As King David could exclaim, even after defeats and set-backs, a time of rejoicing finally arrived:
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever!
Now go Zoom, Skype, or Whatsapp your loved ones and spread the thanks and build the hope! We all need it.
*https://www.voanews.com/usa/all-about-america/what-really-happened-1st-thanksgiving
Bible reference: 1Chronicles 16:34 (Revised Standard Version)
