Gratitude And Thanksgiving, 2003
By Peter and Helen Evans (11/28/03)
Sure, we all look forward to the long weekend, the turkey, the pumpkin pie and visits from friends and relatives. Perhaps we'll even hear stories of how the Pilgrims were thankful to the Indians for showing them how to plant corn and helping them survive their first winters in the new land. But, how much do you think we will we hear about Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of the first 'official' Thanksgiving?
He requested that the American people set apart the last Thursday in November as a day "to be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole American people ... as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."
Well, yes, boys and girls. That's the way it happened in 1863. In the midst of a bloody civil war, he reminded Americans that there was a bounty and a multitude of blessings to be thankful for. Secular revisionist historians would rather it all be about being thankful to the Indians who helped the struggling Pilgrims survive those first few colonial years. They would immediately, of course, remind us that when they were strong and established, those same thankless descendants of the Pilgrims slaughtered their very helpers. However, let's get on to how it really happened.
On October 3, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, "The year that is drawing to a close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God." Here we have a proclamation of a holy-day, not only specifically acknowledging God, but asking all Americans to give thanks and praise. And they did, and continue the fine tradition down to today. But, judging by the protests when President Bush invokes God's blessing for America, you'd think it was the first time in history it had happened. Then again, perhaps we shouldn't make it known why we celebrate Thanksgiving. We'll either have to change the name to "Thank the Government Day" or make the celebration illegal altogether.
President Lincoln singled out a particular aspect of God's providence. "In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict." How similar to our current circumstances this sounds! When we walk down the street admiring the abundance of products and foodstuffs available to make this holiday a celebration of our bounty and blessings, it's hard to believe, here in America, that we're involved in a war. Couple that with an all-volunteer military into which no one is drafted and our lives are not disrupted by this war. Except for those brave volunteers and their families, the rest of us don't truly feel the war.
This reminds us of a fellow who has the towing contract for a stretch of highway in Pennsylvania. His equipment can handle even the big rigs, when they overturn or skid out. He regaled us with stories of gory wrecks and truckloads of 'free' salvaged merchandise. We thought it initially surprising since we "never saw accidents" on the highway of the magnitude and frequency of which he spoke. Of course not; we see only 'our' stretch of road, and very briefly at that. 99% of the time, emergency crews and equipment have been there to clean up the mess before we arrive. Our volunteer military, our police and our emergency crews in many forms are continually "cleaning up the messes" for us. Those of us who don't want to think about it are thus liberated to live in the comfortable illusion that there never are any messes. In a way, that's unfortunate for our society. It enables a false sense of security, that nothing ever gets messed up.
In President Lincoln's proclamation, he further states, "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy." In 1863 Lincoln was referring, of course, to the sins of slavery. May we suggest that our 'sin' has been "tolerating tyranny in the name of stability," which had been the West's foreign policy for the past 50 years. This is the sin that President Bush has courageously brought to an end. Yes, we are paying now for these past sins through the war on terrorism. Yet, at the same time, we are also enjoying growth, prosperity and even population growth. God compels us do what we must, but also rewards us for doing so.
So, what are we really celebrating this Thanksgiving? Gratitude for the many, many people who clean up life's daily messes; gratitude for the challenges that compel us to correct our wrongs; gratitude for prosperity and opportunity. Above all, gratitude for the Author of our very lives and the freedom with which they are unalienably endowed. It is entirely appropriate to thank God for these manifold Blessings.
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