Don’t Mess with Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. No big expectations or pressure to find the perfect gift. Just a meal with family and friends and a focus on giving thanks. However recent articles about the other side in attendance at the first Thanksgiving, the Native Americans, has left me wanting to shout—don’t mess with Thanksgiving!
That First Thanksgiving
The pilgrims had suffered great hardships that first winter in their new home. Fifty percent of them had died. They were facing the uncertainties of another winter and yet, in the midst of their hardship, they gave thanks to God for their harvest with a celebratory feast.
The harvest was made possible by the help of the native Americans who inhabited this new world. The Indians hadn’t been invited to the feast but showed up when they heard gunshots and wondered what was going on. Only then did they join in the celebration, bringing deer to share with the pilgrims.
It sounds like the beginning of a great new friendship, but we all know that wasn’t what happened. Our treatment of the Indians that were here before us is a shame-filled story, filled with bloodshed. It is a reason for remorse, not giving thanks. And it takes away from my celebration of Thanksgiving, as it should.
Life Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect
Life doesn’t have to be perfect before we give thanks. We give thanks amid our challenges and suffering. The pilgrims taught us that. If they could be thankful after so many deaths and an uncertain future, who are we to complain about our lot in life? Thanksgiving reminds us to be grateful for what we have and to thank God.
COVID19 has left many empty seats at family tables this Thanksgiving and the future course of this virus and other viruses that are yet to surface remains uncertain. Still, we have reason to be thankful. We’ve got this. The virus is on the run in the face of the vaccine and new medical breakthrough treatments.
We Don’t Have to Be Perfect
Just as life doesn’t have to be perfect before we give thanks, we don’t have to be perfect, nor does our country have to be perfect with a perfect history. We don’t have to pretend that America is this bastion of liberty, justice, and freedom for all. It isn’t. We know the truth. Better to admit our sinful history. We are far from perfect people and our country’s past is littered with sin.
All the more reason to turn to our God for forgiveness and thank God for bringing us this far.
There is no reason to rewrite history or pretend we are better than we are. We can be thankful amid our sinfulness, humbly turning to God.
Thank God for the Gift of Forgiveness
The early pilgrims were people of faith. They believed God had led them to this country and that they were to conquer/subdue the land, bringing their Christian faith to the world. Manifest Destiny. They certainly aren’t the first people to use religion to justify killing. Sadly, they aren’t the last either.
However history may judge their actions, the majority of the pilgrims were simple, good people trying their best to do what is right, like the majority of us. I only hope history judges my own actions with more kindness than it is judging theirs. Who knows what sin I may be unknowingly committing. It’s called original sin and we all fall under its stain.
And so, this year, I embrace yet another reason to be thankful, the gift of forgiveness by a loving God.
Don’t Mess with Thanksgiving!
Maybe we can celebrate Thanksgiving this year, not despite our history, but humbly recognizing the reality of our sinfulness and our need for God.
Don’t mess with Thanksgiving. Don’t try to change it or pretend our history makes us somehow better than other countries that struggle with their own history of sinfulness. We’ve yet to plumb the depth of this holiday. Let’s embrace it for the richness that is ours as sinful yet forgiven children of God living in a sinful nation.
Wishing everyone a blessed Thanksgiving!
For more on giving thanks, check out my article, The Thankful Mysteries, on my article page, or my booklet, Season of Gratitude.
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