Thanksgiving.
A gastronomic feast for the eyes and stomach with turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie playing the starring roles. My favorite dish is the dressing. With lots of gravy.
Memories dance through my mind of school plays where we reenacted the first Thanksgiving where Pilgrims and Native Americans joined together to celebrate a time of harvest.
I remember the story of the first Thanksgiving, but recently I wondered how Thanksgiving became a national holiday in America.
In l836, at the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the last Thursday of November would be a national holiday of Thanksgiving.
Here is an excerpt from Lincoln’s proclamation:
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they (blessings) should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
As I read this proclamation, the wording struck me. Lincoln designated this holiday as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer.
Typically, we celebrate Thanksgiving as a time of thankfulness, to count our blessings. I can’t begin to count all the ways God has blessed my life.
I am thankful for the daily presence of God in my life. He has walked beside me through the mountaintops and valleys of life. He allowed his son, Jesus, to die in my place so that I could experience both abundant and eternal life. He sent the Holy Spirit to act as my counselor and guide. Knowing and loving God is the greatest blessing of my life.
I’m grateful for my wonderful husband. He has stood beside me through thick and thin (more thick than thin), highs and lows, and tells me he loves my gray hair. He has been my rock.
I’m thankful that my children know and love God. How I love seeing them walk in His steps. I’m grateful to see my grandchildren being raised by loving parents.
Yes, I am thankful for all these blessings.
But, as I read Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation, I realized, in addition to thanking God for his blessings, Lincoln called for all Americans to pray for a country divided by war. Prayers for the healing of the wounds of a nation, for peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
So I challenge each of us, to make Thanksgiving a day of gratitude and a day of prayer. As we thank God for his many blessings, let’s also pray for our family, our relationships, and our nation. Pray for peace, harmony, healing, and union.
I pray that your Thanksgiving is full of many blessings.
And lots of turkey and dressing!
And for any history buffs, here is the complete proclamation making Thanksgiving a national holiday. It is worth the read.
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.The year that is drawing towards its 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.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to 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; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State
