Thanksgiving

Even though it's not very popular to do so, I'm celebrating Thanksgiving this month. Sometimes its celebration is lost between the hype of Halloween and the mass marketing of Christmas shopping. But, Thanksgiving is real. What is it about this holiday that should stir our very souls?

What is Thanksgiving anyway? Who were these pilgrims that are often caricatured, but never taken very seriously? It bears remembering.

The separatists (or Pilgrims) were at odds with the Church of England and refused to worship there thereby breaking the law. As a result, they were pursued and persecuted. William Bradford wrote:

But after these things they could not long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted & persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as flea-bitings in comparison of these which now came upon them. For some were taken & clapt up in prison, others had their houses besett & watcht night and day, & hardly escaped their hands; and ye most were faine to flie & leave their howses & habitations, and the means of their livelehood.

So, they fled. Stopping first in the Netherlands, they acquired funding to sail to the New World. An agreement was settled upon which became the historical document known as the Mayflower Compact. It begins, …“In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten…having undertaken for the glorie of God, and advancemente of the Christian faith…a voyage to plant the first colony…”

So, our heritage began! Brave people who sacrificed all that they had so that they might advance the Christian faith. How politically incorrect that must sound today. In fact, in many history books today , the original document as been edited to read, “We whose names are underwritten…having taken a voyage to plant the first colony…” An alarming revision of history it seems.

Dr. Del Tackett, of The Truth Project noted, "if I can change your historical context, I can change the way you view the present…George Orwell said, “He who controls the past, controls the future.” And Karl Marx stated, “A people without a heritage are easily persuaded.”

Os Guiness, a protestant philosopher, noted, “Those who don’t know history have no sense of identity, and no sense of wisdom as they explore where they’re going to go. Without history we’re lost.”

After the pilgrims’ struggle, William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation wrote, “But these things did not dismay them (though they did sometimes trouble them) for their desires were set on the ways of God, and to enjoy His ordinances; but they rested on His Providence and knew whom they believed.”

Bradford further noted, “Last and not least, they (the Pilgrims) cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least of making some way towards it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work.”

So, I'm celebrating Thanksgiving. This great country was built on the backs of those who sacrificed so much. I hope that you and your family count your blessings this year, too.