Think You Know What Happened on Thanksgiving? You DO!

I thought we had escaped the holiday this year without the usual revisionist history lessons disguised as news reports but last night my local news carried a story about the confusion surrounding the ACTUAL events of the first Thanksgiving.

This reporter apparently subscribes to the scattershot method of journalism. He managed to report that the very first Thanksgiving probably happened two years earlier than the one in Plymouth and that it took place in Jamestown. He also interviewed a Native American who asserted that the settlers have no claim on the first anything on these shores. Native Americans were giving thanks for years before they arrived. The report continued to dispel the menu myths of the first Thanksgiving as if an expose on the non-existence of pumpkin pie might deter us from setting aside a day of gratitude.

I don’t know why I’m surprised. It’s an American holiday tradition. It seems that the further along in history we humans get the less we decide we actually know about what came before. While we make incredible advances in science, technology, communication and education, we seem to employ all this progress in the task of tearing apart recorded history and deciding we really have no clue what happened before our generation arrived on the planet. Americans, especially, have made this a favorite pastime – as if we looked at Communism and decided we didn’t like that whole sharing of resources of business but revising history and the art of propaganda could really come in handy – let’s keep those practices alive even after the walls come down and the curtain lifts.

The one useful fact this reporter quoted is that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. That sparked my interest. Knee deep in the Civil War and an American President declares a day of thanks. I looked up his proclamation. His words and intent for the American people on a national day of thanksgiving could not be clearer. If you’re up for feeling emotional, you can find them and read them yourself here:  Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

One singular quote from his proclamation is this: “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.” Nothing unclear about that. Nothing about white settlers or Native Americans or turkeys or cranberry sauce. In the midst of a terrible, terrible war, Lincoln believed it to be in the best interest of the nation that all of her citizens everywhere should take a day to express thanksgiving and praise to our Father in Heaven. He didn’t pardon a turkey or host a multi-cultural state dinner. He took to his knees on behalf of the people he served and instructed them to do the same.

For the original participants of the holiday – whoever they were – as for those who followed suit in 1863 – the point of the day wasn’t the menu or the festivities or who was gathered at the table. The point was to offer thanks to God for all His blessings which can be found in the midst of any circumstance.

“Give thanks to Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.” Psalm 118: 29

Don’t fall prey to the propaganda. History happened. Truth exists and endures and can be found. God exists and He rewards those who earnestly seek him. He is involved in the affairs of humans and He is deserving of thanks on Thanksgiving and every day that follows.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving. May God be present at your table.