As we celebrate Thanksgiving in 2024, with the direction our Nation and world is heading in, some might wonder what we are thankful for. To an Ole Seagull, it is a special day of giving thanks to God for the blessings he has, has had, and the hope that those blessings will continue to flow to those and the Country he loves.
Common sense tells him that something celebrated as “Thanksgiving Day” should be a day of “giving thanks.” Who among us says “thank you” to “no one?” People give “thanks” to someone or something for a reason.
Yet, even as some would take “CHRIST” out of CHRISTmas, they would take the “Thanks” out of Thanksgiving. To whom are we giving “thanks?” “Coronado’s 1541 Thanksgiving in Palo Duro Canyon, the 1600 Puritan Thanksgivings in New England, and the earliest days of American history testify to the fact that the roots of our modern-day Thanksgiving is in giving thanks to God for blessings given.
The Proclamations establishing “Thanksgiving” and history itself reveal the true meaning of “Thanksgiving” and its involvement with the very foundation of our Nation. One of the “First Thanksgiving Proclamations,” issued in 1676 by the Governing Council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, proclaimed, “a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favor ….”
On December 18, 1777, after the victory over the British at Saratoga, the Congress recommended: “That at one time, and with one voice, the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that, together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings they may join the penitent confession of their sins; and supplications for such further blessings as they stand in need of.”
On November 16, 1789, the First President of the United States, George Washington, issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation stating, “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me to ‘recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many single favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.’”
Abraham Lincoln, in his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation, said it best. “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged 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 foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
Particularly at this time in our Nation’s history, it would seem appropriate to stop and give “Thanks” to Almighty God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon this Nation and its people. As Lincoln beautifully says, “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God.”
Comments