Thanksgiving
This holiday always reminds me of an old book: “The History of Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford’s 17th Century journal of the little colony of Mayflower pilgrims that managed to establish a toehold on the coast of Massachusetts in 1620. It is a fascinating account of faith and endurance. Above all, it is a story of survival. During that terrible first winter and year of struggle, half the colony died! And there weren’t that many, to begin with — only 102!
How would you feel, marooned 3,000 miles from home and family in a hostile land, watching your friends and neighbors die one by one until every second person with whom you had cast your future was gone?
This makes our experience with COVID-19 pale by comparison, doesn’t it? Would despair lap at your ankles? Would you wonder if it was all worth it?
So, amid their struggle, the colony came to that “First Thanksgiving.” It was not a feast of thanks for God’s abundance. It was a feast of thanksgiving for survival and for God’s providence. They were on the verge of another winter and there would surely be more hardships and death, but the colony knew they had survived the worst. That was the occasion for thanksgiving — that and the fact that they had managed to store up food enough for the coming winter. The menu, by the way, did not include turkey!
Think about all this as you carve the bird with family and friends later today. Focus for a moment on the worst you have survived, can you thank God for that? Can you thank Him for the struggles, the disappointments, and the failures that lead you to acknowledge your dependence on God alone? Can you thank God for giving you those tasks that demand your best efforts and for leading you to accomplishments that satisfy and delight you? Can you thank God in all things?
My prayer today is that you will take a little time to offer God the whole of your life, the bitter and the sweet, and to say, “Thank you, God, thanks for everything!” And, most of all, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which He overcame temptation; for His dying, through which He overcame death; and for His rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your Kingdom!
