Thanksgiving Eve

A few years ago, an American and a British journalist were discussing Thanksgiving on a British radio program. The American asked if Thanksgiving was celebrated in the United Kingdom.

“Yes,” the British journalist replied, “But we celebrate it on the 3^rd of September.”

“Why then?” asked the American.

“That’s when you chaps left,” the Brit answered good-naturedly. (The Treaty of Paris was signed on that day in 1783, thereby ending the revolution and acknowledging American independence.)

Well, it is true that Thanksgiving is celebrated as a national holiday primarily in the U.S. and Canada, two former British colonies.

Thanksgiving in the U.S. is usually traced to 1621 when a Pilgrim leader, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of feasting to commemorate the first harvest after a long year of suffering. What you may not know is that, as the colonies grew more prosperous, the people forgot all about Thanksgiving and the meaning it held for their ancestors. For generations Thanksgiving was celebrated sporadically, if at all, with no set date.

Then in 1822 Sarah Hale, a young widow from New Hampshire, decided to revive this important celebration. Sarah, a mother of five children and an editor of a women’s magazine, began a 40-year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents to get Thanksgiving officially recognized as a national holiday. Three Presidents turned her down. Her obsession became a reality, however. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as an annual celebration of Thanksgiving.

It’s interesting that it should have been Lincoln that responded to Sarah’s request. His own life was at a very low ebb at the time. The country was literally falling apart, and Lincoln’s political future looked bleak. Many of the members of his own cabinet openly despised him and joked about him in public. His wife had been investigated as a possible traitor. In the face of such personal and national circumstances, Lincoln’s call for a day of prayer would have made sense. But Thanksgiving? At a time like that? What must he have been thinking? No wonder historians count Lincoln as one of our truly great presidents.

Interestingly enough, Sarah Hale, the widow who championed the cause of Thanksgiving is not remembered for that act. Rather she is much better known as the author of a little poem written in 1830 which begins like this: “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow . . .”

As the late Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story . . .”

There is something healthy about giving thanks. Notice that I did not say there is something healthy about Thanksgiving meals. Most of us will overindulge this Thanksgiving, just as we do every Thanksgiving.

There’s a story that actress Helen Hayes used to tell on herself. As she retired to the kitchen to put the finishing touches to a Thanksgiving dinner she was preparing, she warned her family: “This is the first turkey I’ve ever cooked. If it isn’t right, I don’t want anybody to say a word. We’ll just get up from the table, without comment, and go down to the hotel for dinner.”

She returned some ten minutes later to find the family seated expectantly at the dinner table – wearing their hats and coats.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad Thanksgiving meal. The danger isn’t that the meal won’t be tasty. The danger is that we will consume too much. Our Thanksgiving meal may not be too healthy for us, but the act of giving thanks is one of the most spiritually beneficial exercises we can perform.

Giving thanks reminds us how blessed we truly are. As an anonymous author has written:

If you woke up this morning and were able to hear the birds sing, use your vocal cords to utter human sounds, walk to the breakfast table on two good legs, and read the newspaper with two good eyes . . . you are more blessed than millions of those who could not do these simple things.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation . . . you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death . . . you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep . . . you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place . . . you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful . . . you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

Giving thanks reminds us how blessed we are. This is not to say that you and I don’t have problems. We do, but for most of us, our blessings far outweigh our burdens.

For many of us, Thanksgiving doesn’t come naturally. It doesn’t seem obvious why we should be saying thank you to God. Some of us, whether we admit it or not, are like Bart Simpson. In one episode of The Simpsons, young Bart sits down to a meal with his family. When he’s asked to offer the grace, he says, “God, we paid for all this ourselves. Thanks for nothing.” Bart Simpson might be a cartoon character, but he says what a lot of us are tempted to think. Some people have no feeling of Thanksgiving.

Even the biblical writers found it necessary to issue a corrective for ingratitude. We read in Deuteronomy these stirring words: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you shall eat food without scarcity, in which you shall not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.”

We’re called to remember to pause long enough to think about what God has done for us. It is so easy to lose track of our blessings in the helter-skelter environment in which we find ourselves. How often we forget to give God thanks for our daily bread, for the hands that prepared it, for the homes that shelter us as we take our daily bread. How often we forget that all we have is a gift from God.

A man went to his physician complaining of pain in several places. The doctor asked him to indicate where it hurt. He pointed first to his leg, then to his back, then to his side, finally to his head. “Every time I press on these places, it hurts.” After a careful examination, the physician diagnosed his problem. “You have a broken finger.”

When we’re ungrateful, it is usually not our circumstances that are to blame. We are like that man with the broken finger focusing on his leg, his back, his side, and his head when his problem lay in the finger he was using to examine each of them. Ungrateful people are usually troubled in their hearts and souls. The problem is not outside but inside. The cure is to remember what the Lord has done for us.

Thanksgiving Day is a special day. As a national holiday it is different from all others. On it, we do not celebrate a great victory in battle. Nor do we honor a great person. It’s a day when we thank God for the blessings we, both personally and as a nation, enjoy.

Izaak Walton once said, “God has two dwellings: one in heaven and the other in a meek and thankful heart.” We can have thankful hearts when we focus on God and what God has done for us.

The Pilgrims knew the safest place to stand in the storm was in the presence of God. They knew that God was the source of their blessings, and they kept their promises to God and gave thanks. This was as important to their well-being as the food on the table. It kept their souls refreshed and full of joy. It was this same focus on God that allowed St. Paul to write in First Thessalonians 5:17-18, “Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

I pray that you will have a happy and grateful Thanksgiving.