It is now a week past Thanksgiving and I would like to share some post-thanksgiving thoughts.
I believe that we can never think too much about what we can be thankful for.
Americans have a long tradition of thanksgiving. We can go back to the earliest days of America and find people celebrating the mercies and blessings of God with days of thanksgiving. In fact, the tradition seems to go back all the way to our first days on the continent, over 100 years before America was founded, with the people aboard the Mayflower having a day of thanksgiving.
Roger Sherman – a founding father of our nation – spoke of a suggestion by a congressman to have a day of thanksgiving after the ratification of our first amendment, “ ... warranted by a number of precedents in holy writ ... worthy of Christian imitation on the present occasion.” The thanksgiving celebrations were not yet decided upon nationally to be held in November, but they were celebrated – at least yearly – as a way to give thanks for the many blessings that we receive.
Thanksgiving was declared to be held on the last Thursday in November by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. In the middle of a civil war, we can see that Lincoln recognized our need to remain thankful. In his proclamation to suggest that we set aside this day, he said, “I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday in November next as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in heaven.”
His reasoning for why it should be a national day is that we could all see the gracious gifts and mercy of God despite his anger against us – and for that, we could all be thankful.
In writing an eye-witness account of one early thanksgiving day from the Plymouth colony – in which the Puritan colony and the Wampanoag tribe celebrated together – a man named Edward Winslow sums up the attitude which will provide us with perpetual thankfulness.
“And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”
Thankfulness is a fertile soil for growing a good life. Thankfulness drives away bitterness. The act of being thankful requires us to look for our blessings and to the source of those blessings. While the times may be hard – or situations dire – it never takes long to find blessings in our lives. We can be thankful for the good providential gifts which so often comes our way.
So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I submit that the 364 days that follow are also good days, to remember the blessings that we so readily receive and so often forget.
Jeremy Wiggins is a columnist for The Graham Star.