Is it just me, or do Christmas decorations seem to go up just a little bit earlier every year?
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the wonder and magic of Christmas.
However, I tend to think of Thanksgiving as a precursor to Christmas, after all, it is Jesus’ life and ministry that I am most grateful for in my life.
As a child, I found a special wonder all its own lay in spending Thanksgiving playing games with my cousins while we waited for all the amazing cooks in my family to concoct a delicious buffet of our family’s favorite dishes.
I love learning about history, American in particular, and I enjoyed hearing about how our forefathers clung to survival in their early, rocky years here. Our first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, when the Pilgrims broke bread with the Wampanoag tribe over a thanksgiving feast, because they were grateful the Native American tribe helped them survive by teaching them what vegetables and fruits to plant in the unfamiliar environment.
This 2024 will mark America’s 403rd Thanksgiving.
As we gather around our tables this holiday, we will be representing 403 years of Americans who have lived and died on our soil, and who have in common they celebrated Thanksgiving with their loved ones, their heads also bowed in gratitude.
When I look around at American society, one thing I find normalized more every day is the acceptance of ungrateful behavior. I wonder if in the rush to get a visit from a gift-laden Santa, we have become so far removed from the Lord’s birth, and what it represents for humanity, that we have forgotten how to be grateful for it.
I can only imagine what was served during America’s first Thanksgiving, but I would put money on those Pilgrims having invited the Lord to dine with them that fateful day in history, and I wonder if Americans will be doing that at their Thanksgiving tables this holiday as well?
As I look forward to this upcoming Thanksgiving and reflect on the last contentious election season, I hope we can find it in our hearts to be grateful that we as Americans are still here.
Benjamin Franklin once said of America, “You have a democracy, if you can keep it.” Well, things may once again be contentious in our history, but we can say we continue to keep America intact.
We have been laughed at, looked down on, and belittled by other nations since the day we first hoisted the Red, White, and Blue.
Through it all we have slugged through history, often taking swipes at each other along the way, yet here we stand a nation united nonetheless. They called our nation the great “American Experiment,” often with derision, and that experiment has proven we can forge a nation of different races, personalities, and creeds into a shared history.
If things had gone a different way back in 1621, America would have been over before it began, as some might say it should have been.
I disagree.
We are a people carved out from all other nations that God has used to accomplish a tremendous amount of good around the globe. It is not wrong to acknowledge all the invention, protection, evangelism, and latest trends America has shared with the world. Our ancestors, no matter how they came here, have all had a voice in the telling of this story. Sometimes the words written in our history book have been hard and painful to hear, while other chapters will make your heart sing with national pride. Isn’t that the point of any story worth telling?
So, when you see Christmas decorations bearing down on you from store shelves while you shop for your Thanksgiving feast this year, don’t feel ashamed to stop and remember the Pilgrims. I encourage you to reflect on what this very American holiday really meant for our struggling nation, before we all get lost in the latest thing we just have to find wrapped in bright, shiny paper under our Christmas tree. It’s possible a little gratitude now might just make this Christmas season shine all the brighter in our hearts and memories.
If we take the time to be grateful for how far this nation has come since its first Thanksgiving, rather than dwell on how much higher it still has to climb, would we be any kinder, maybe, dare I say, thankful to have each other?