Giving Thanks...

I have been thinking latley about "Thanksgiving" and what that means. Many people celebrate this holiday with loved ones that they only see a few times each year. Most people will take the time to think about what it is they are thankful for and maybe even tell each other what that might be. As much as I love family and love to be with loved ones that we don't see often, I think that the real purpose of this holiday has gotten a bit lost. It is nice to be thankful and to even voice the things we are thankful for, but how many times do we tell the one that deserves the thanks, how grateful we really are.

My sister tells me that I retain random information really well. So I guess that may come in handy as I share with you a few things that I have recently learned about this incredible holiday we are about to partake of. I think that we all realize that the "First" thanksgiving was a time when the Native Americans helped the English Settlers learn to grow their own crops and reap their own harvest. This banquet meal that they shared together was a celebration of how well they had worked together and how thankful the settlers were for the harvest that would bring health back to their people. But did you also know, that British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief, knelt in prayer and thanksgiving to God for the safe and healthy arrival across the Atlantic. Later the Govoner of each colony would declare days of Thanksgiving every autumn for a bountiful harvest, victorious battles or droughtless rains. New England celebrated Thanksgiving as a religous holiday set aside as a time of fasting, prayer and giving thanks To GOD. In 1777 Congress decided that all of the colonies should celebrate a time of Thanksgiving as a celbration of their victory over the British. Years later one woman started writing letter after letter to congress asking for a National Day Of Thanksgiving, she believed that it would unite a Nation that was headed towards civial war.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday of November was to be the National holiday of Thanksgiving which we celebrate today. Here is a small excerpt from the proclomation that Lincoln wrote:

"IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any moral hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God... It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledge 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 foriegn lands, to give Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

There is no mistaking that this Thanksgiving, God is the one to whom all our Praises and expressions of Thanks must be given. I hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday, but most of all, I pray that we all remember that those things we are thankful for were given to us by God and He must be Thanked.