It’s hard to believe the General Election will happen, ready or not, this coming Tuesday and just over two weeks from then will be Thanksgiving. Growing up celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends getting together and sharing our favorite holiday foods such as oyster stuffing, an apple dish my brother makes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and of course mashed potatoes with gravy, and turkey with more stuffing, I never gave much thought to how this holiday started. Frankly, I was more interested in what would be on the desert table each year.
However, for some odd reason this year, I decided to determine the origins of our Thanksgiving celebration. Encyclopedia Britannica tells us:
“Colonists in New England and Canada regularly observed “thanksgivings,” days of prayer for such blessings as safe journeys, military victories, or abundant harvests. Americans model their holiday on a 1621 harvest feast shared between English colonists and the Wampanoag. Canadians trace their earliest thanksgiving to 1578, when a Martin Frobisher-led expedition celebrated safe passage.” 1
What a wonderful holiday, a day intentionally set aside to offer prayers of thanksgiving to God for all the many blessings God provides for us. On Thanksgiving Day and every day, we should be praising and thanking God for all our blessings, especially the gift of His Son for our salvation. The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 4:8 NLT, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Certainly Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our God is excellent and worthy of praise every minute of every day of our lives. Amen.
In His Love,
Pastor Peggy
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thanksgiving-Day