Giving thanks to God for His blessings is deeply rooted in American history. One of the thoughts that come to mind for most Americans when reflecting on Thanksgiving is the story we learned as children of the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621 (a misnomer, but that’s OK for now), when Pilgrims and Indians gathered to celebrate the first harvest of these new settlers in what is now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. If we probe our memories deep enough, we also recall that President George Washington in 1789 issued a proclamation creating the first Thanksgiving Day formally set aside by the newly created Federal government of the United States of America. Despite that proclamation, it was not until 1863 during the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln declared a national Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving has been celebrated annually in the United States as an official holiday since then. Interestingly (at least to me) in order to finally settle a two-year dispute between Democrats and Republicans that arose during the Great Depression related to the economic impact of Thanksgiving, in 1941 Congress tweaked the formal date of Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November, as we know it today.
Washington’s and Lincoln’s proclamations (as well as the writings and speeches of many other Americans key in shaping and leading our country), reveal their clear and indisputable acknowledgement of God as creator, provider and sustainer. Regrettably, I believe most Americans educated in the last few decades aren’t aware of this perspective of God held by most of our country’s founders and leaders. Many in academia wish to remove God from American history, so in the face of the truth well documented in our country’s historical documents, these academicians recast the so-called First Thanksgiving as the Pilgrims giving thanks to the Indians for helping them survive, and they attempt to discredit many of our founding fathers as greedy, villainous slaveholders.
So, why this history lesson and editorial on God in American history?
Because the same motivations that seek to recast the truth of God’s providence and blessings in our country’s founding and history are also at work throughout our culture in attempting to diminish the importance of God, both corporately and personally, in our lives today. The same forces that wish to deny our country’s Judeo-Christian heritage also wish for a culture free of God. Regrettably, the views espoused by most who view God as a psychological projection of weak minded people and who view religion as a virus to be destroyed appear to have sunk deeply into the American psyche today. As evidenced by the most recent Barna study on Americans’ views on God and religion, a blend of materialism, naturalism and secularism have led America as a whole away from an overall cultural acceptance of the existence of God. Likewise, and perhaps even more harmfully, a false relativistic spiritualism continues to sweep our country leading its adherents to believe there is in fact a god and it is up to each person, in our his particular way, to find god. Unfortunately, these seekers of god are driven by their desire for a mixture of pleasure, mysticism and self betterment that in the end leads them to find a god of their own making – a god they ultimately find abides within themselves. A comparative study of this form of spiritualism and of Satanism reveals amazingly similar foundations and premises, except, of course, that the name of the object of worship changes to the believer himself.
So again, why do I write all this here at Thanksgiving?
I’m glad you asked! To be truly thankful requires a person to first accept at least a couple of truths. First, to be thankful, for other than the trivial pleasures and gestures of kindness one person may show another, a person must realize that life and all that comes with it is not created by happenstance, by fate or by mankind himself. If it were, then to whom, other than perhaps ourselves, should we be thankful? To be genuinely thankful for life itself and for the real blessings of life requires acknowledging a creative, sustaining, providential force. A force I choose to refer to as God.
Second, to be thankful, a person must realize he is not capable of living, in any real sense of the word, truly alone and on his own. Whether he realizes it or not, a person cannot survive in a psychologically healthy manner long-term without various acts of love and kindnesses being shown to him on a regular basis. Likewise, as he realizes this fact, his eyes are opened to the inter-connectedness of people in general in order for our basic physical, emotional, intellectual and social needs to be met.
When we come to the realization that all we have and indeed our very existence comes directly or indirectly from God, and we come to realize our innate need to be in relationship with other people, then, and only then, can we begin to be truly thankful for much anything.
So, let us:
Praise God from whom all blessing flow.
Praise Him all creature here below.
Praise Him above ye Heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Let us “not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present [our] requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus.”
Let us also “be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for [us] in Christ Jesus.”
