Thanksgiving

The Plymouth colony’s harvest in 1621 is acknowledged as the example this county is celebrating today. A time when the colonists and the Wampanoags gave thanks together, feasting on their bountiful harvest. The colony could not have survived without Wampanoag help. The previous winter decimated the colony.

For more information on the Wampanoag way of life, check the Wampanoag Homesite on Plimoth Plantation. For more information on early colonial villages, check the 17th Century English Village on that same website.

I found it interesting after learning my children’s 10th great-grandparents were part of the Massachusett’s Bay colony, arriving in 1630 – relative late comers.

The good will between colonists and Native Americans did not last. Though the concept of Thanksgiving after harvest did last, it was not considered a national holiday until President Abraham Lincoln signed it into existence in 1863. An attempt to unite a warring nation? Or a recognition that we should follow the Bible’s admonition:

So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations. (Psalms 79:13 KJV)

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; (Ephesians 5:20 KJV)

Thanksgiving, 2011, I gave thanks for two in-laws, my son-in-law’s sister and my granddaughter-in-law; one a nurse, the other a doctor in physical therapy. They confirmed my initial concern that my Beloved Husband was in the first stages of a myasthenic crisis. That his labored breathing was not a heart attack, but the cessation of the involuntary muscles associated with breathing. His first air ambulance, a week of ICU, changes in medicine – and yet it happened again in February. Still more changes in lifestyle, only to have a septic infection in July. 2012 was a difficult year.

This year has been better, and for that I continually give thanks. Many of his symptoms have lessened. Prayer, along with having the right doctors at just the right time (again, part of answered prayers!) and he spent Wednesday making pies for the thirty participants in this year’s Thanksgiving celebration at our home.

It’s a potluck, everyone responsible for a dish, so we’ll have a variety of food as well as people. All three of my children, their spouses, their spouses’ parents, some grandchildren, great-grandchildren, siblings, etc. We are a diverse group. Many will give thanks to God, some will simply be grateful in their own way. There will be a blessing before the meal is served thanking God, in Jesus’ name, for all He has done for us. That prayer will include several specific requests, thankfulness for those who prepared the meal, a request that it be used not only for nourishment but that we will be of service to our Lord. There will be a few silent prayers for those who do not know Him to understand His love, grace and mercy. Please join with us in those specific prayers.

Join with us as we follow Jesus’ words about the greatest harvest:

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. (Luke 10:2 KJV)