What I mostly remember from childhood is that Thanksgiving was a special holiday. The holiday was seasoned with religious significance and a sense of the importance of family. After all, isn’t God the Father of all good gifts? The origin of the holiday was clearly tied to the Pilgrims, who left behind religious oppression in England in search of a land where they could be free from governmental tyranny based on a person’s faith walk.
Truth be told, as a child I was oblivious to the kinds of hardships the Pilgrims experienced during their fist winter in America. One might think that the initial challenges of getting established in a strange new land were mostly behind them after their first harvest. Yet, how could that possibly be true?
The cold, hard facts are these: Almost half of those who made the voyage to the Plymouth Colony did not survive the first winter. Of the 102 voyagers who embarked on the journey, only 53 were accounted for when the celebration took place. Of the nineteen wives in the group, only five survived. That is not an overabundance of feel-good stories. Obviously, the question on everyone’s mind was: “Can we survive another winter?”
Yet in the midst of great difficulty, those who celebrated the first Thanksgiving gravitated toward a spirit of gratitude rather than resentment. As the Psalmist expressed, they chose to look to the hills from which came their strength. They simply trusted God and his mercy to see them through another year of life.
There are a couple of life lessons we can learn from the Pilgrims. For starters, their faith walk was one that could not be diminished, even in the midst of overwhelming difficulties. Personally, I can’t fathom facing the kinds of challenges that each day presented to them. In contrast, you and I are living the American dream.
Most of us have not known the kind of hardships and difficulties the Pilgrims faced, but triumphantly, with God’s leadership and indwelling presence, they paused in the midst of great loss to focus on the true source of their strength and the equipping nature of God’s love. From that focus came a sense of gratitude.
The Pilgrims’ ability to move forward in the aftermath of great loss and to trust God with their future is an example for all of us. When our lives take an unexpected turn and things momentarily don’t look right, who better to trust with our future than God?
Thanksgiving 2019 offers us an opportunity to mirror the Pilgrims’ progress by recognizing that the underlying source of our strength and possessions is God. We are not self-sufficient. It is only through His hand of mercy that our primary needs are met within the threshold of His bounty.
So, in the midst of much, let us pause to be truly grateful.
All My Best!
Don