Through the History On This Thanksgiving Day!

The pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, in 1620. However, they needed more food for the first year. Their first winter was harsh, and almost half of the colonists died between 1620 and 1621. It was late for them to plant crops to supply for living. Moreover, the food supply was limited as they needed to bring more food from Europe. Due to an unexpected ship arriving to provide for their dire needs, they felt new relief.

In the 1621 springtime, the local native Americans taught them how to cultivate vegetables, corn, etc.; they also learned from them how to cook squash, corn & cranberries. The Wampanoag Indians also taught hunting skills as they were expert hunters. With God’s blessings, the summer crop gave them hope for the future. Surviving in a new, totally different, and strange place was very challenging for the colonists, who left Europe wishing for religious and fresh opportunities.
To celebrate the 1621 blessed harvest after encountering many hardships, the pilgrims and local American Indians gathered for a thankful feast. This included wild turkey, duck, corn, green vegetables, and fruits. Three days were spent for celebration and had colonists and Native Americans. Prayers, songs of Thanksgiving, and sermons were also part of the three-day feast. After the bounteous harvest, the Governor of Massachusetts, William Bradford, proclaimed a special day “to render thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings.” It was the beginning and a turning point in US history.

The first proclamation from Plymouth by Governor Bradford said, “Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us the freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. Now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since Ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render Thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”
William Bradford, Ye Governor of Ye Colony.

From this time forward, Thanksgiving was celebrated as a day to thank God for His gracious and sufficient provision. Later, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, officially announced the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father.” In 1941 Congress approved the fourth Thursday of November to be observed as Thanksgiving Day and declared it a national holiday.

From the beginning to the end, the Bible describes the need for Thanksgiving to God as a requirement from His people. The emphasis of the meal offering prescribed in Leviticus 2 is Thanksgiving, as it is meant as an offering of their first fruits and a meal shared with worshippers, priests, and God. Along with other convocations, there was an appointed time for the feast of the first fruits. The event, called the Feast of Pentecost, was when people expressed Thanksgiving to God for the grain harvest and other crops (Nm 28:26-31). The book of Psalms contains many songs of Thanksgiving for God’s blessings, deliverances, salvation grace, and mercies. No wonder the first colonists celebrated a three-day celebration remembering God’s blessings and protection amid the severe challenges of adapting to their new and dangerous environment.

The New Testament in the Bible has repeated commands to give thanks to God. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” God said in Psalm 50:23, “The sacrifice that honors me is a thankful heart.” After receiving many gifts from the hands of God, who is the giver of all perfect gifts, giving thanks ought to be the proper response from the people. When you think about it, God’s greatest gift was Jesus Christ, His Son, who died on the cross for all of our sins, then rose again from the dead, thereby paying in full all the debts owed to Him. It is called an ‘indescribable gift,’ and 2 Corinthians 9:15 says, “thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.”

May this new thanksgiving day that we celebrate tomorrow be a day of genuinely giving honor to God by saying thank you to Him for all the manifold blessings you received from His hand. We have a choice, don’t we? We can complain and murmur, or we can be thankful. If you continuously complain about things you don’t have, you may lose even what you have now. Alternatively, if you are grateful to God for his blessings and protection, you will receive more and more.

The choice is yours and mine to be submissive and thankful to the Lord of heaven, who blesses us when we seek him with gratitude and prayers. Looking back on the history of colonists’ grateful beginnings and how the US eventually came into existence and thrived as a beacon of light and power to the world, this is the lesson I learned.