Daily Verse | 1 Corinthians 8:9
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
Thursday’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 9-11
Thanksgiving has deep roots in the history of the United States. We all know the story of the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag people sharing an autumn harvest feast in 1621 that is known as the first Thanksgiving. Michael Hollan shares a brief history of Thanksgiving becoming a formal holiday.
Before it became an official holiday, President George Washington issued a proclamation that Thursday, November 26, 1789, would be a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer,” according to the Unites States Office of the Historian. It wasn’t until 1863, however, that President Abraham Lincoln said that Americans should recognize the last Thursday of every November as a day of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving became an official national holiday in 1870, along with Christmas, New Year’s Day and Independence Day, the government website states. At that time, it was decided that the president would decide the date of Thanksgiving. Most followed Lincoln’s lead and chose the last Thursday of November, according to the Office of the Historian.
This continued until President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it to the third Thursday of November, according to the Office of the Historian. At the time, the country was still reeling from the Great Depression, and Roosevelt hoped to help businesses by extending the holiday season.
The move was controversial, however, and the House passed a bill in October of 1941 that made the last Thursday of November the official date for Thanksgiving.
Some 80 years later, we continue to celebrate Thanksgiving as one of our major national observances and as a lead-in to “the holiday season.” But the spirit of the day in our current era is a far cry from what the original intent of the celebration was.
In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends.
No kidding. Here’s how George Washington described the day:
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
Here’s how Abraham Lincoln described the day:
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,
In our secular world, the idea of thanksgiving has been boiled down to having a huge meal with family or friends and watching a football game while we enjoy a day off of work. If we’re trying to inject something meaningful into our observance, we might share what we’re thankful for: family, friends, financial security, good weather, safe travels, the new job, baby, house or car.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with those things, but we seem to be missing the implied object of our thanks. The word is thanks-GIVING. To whom are we giving thanks?
The Pilgrims, Washington and Lincoln all had it right. Our thanks is to be directed to God, “that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be,” and “to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”
1 Chronicles 29:14
Today, as you observe Thanksgiving, remember that all that we have comes from the hand of the Lord. Celebrate appropriately.