When we think of Thanksgiving, we usually think
of Pilgrims and Indians gathered for a harvest feast at Plymouth, but it was
Abraham Lincoln who gave us Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Prior to Lincoln,
each state celebrated Thanksgiving on different dates according to the
discretion of each state’s governor. In 1863, in the middle of the Civil War,
Lincoln issued a Presidential proclamation for a national day of Thanksgiving.
After noting the many blessings of God in spite
of the Civil War with all its suffering and severity, Lincoln wrote in his
proclamation, “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.”
We must never take the blessings of God for
granted. He holds every nation of every age accountable. We cannot descend into the chasms of
corruption, deception, anger, prejudice, arrogance, greed and immorality and expect
God’s blessings to remain upon us.
Thomas Jefferson’s words are inscribed on the
Northeast Portico of the Jefferson Memorial: “Can the liberties of a nation be
secured when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of
God? Indeed I tremble for my nation when
I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
Jeremiah counseled, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Do
justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the
power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger,
the orphan or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood … Did not your father
eat and drink and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him. He
pled the cause of the afflicted and the needy; then it was well. Is not that
what it means to know Me?’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 22:3,5, 15-16).
Just over two weeks before his death in
1963, John F. Kennedy issued a
Thanksgiving proclamation on November 5.
He wrote, “Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of
honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers – for the decency of purpose,
steadfastness of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed
and which we must emulate. As we express
our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to
utter words but to live by them.”
In an interview with Jeremiah Greever, Eric
Metaxas, author of Bonhoffer and If You Can Keep It, reflected on the failure of the German church to
confront and oppose the rise of totalitarianism under Hitler. He referred to
Alexis de Toqueville’s assessment
concerning America in 1835, “Liberty cannot be established without morality,
nor morality without faith … despotism may govern without faith, but liberty
cannot.”
As we enter the 2024 Presidential election year,
it is important that we approach this Thanksgiving with humility, gratitude and
prayer that as individuals and a nation we might fulfill God’s will in our
treatment of one another and the nations of the earth.
For Thanksgiving, my newest book, We Beheld His Glory, free eBook on Amazon November 23-26.
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