GIVE THANKS

 It’s Thanksgiving week. I love this week.  The kids have all traveled home, the house smells of pumpkin and spice. The family gathers together. It’s a great time of year. But if that is all Thanksgiving means to me, if that’s where my focus remains, I’ve lost the meaning, the very reason for this holiday’s existence. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November to be set apart as a time to give thanks. This was a time when our nation was in crisis. We were at war, with ourselves!  The Civil War was tearing our nation apart.  And in this dark hour, our president gave this presidential address, consider it:

“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come … the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations…

In other words, if a foreign nation wanted to attack the United States, we would be most vulnerable when we were at war with ourselves.  But President Lincoln points out, that during our own Civil War, we are at peace with all nations. He gives God the credit for this. In the midst of the crisis, he finds something to be grateful for. He goes on to say that country is still experiencing provision from our natural resources, industry in many places is still flourishing, the population continues to increase, and away from the battlefields, there is still law and order in the land.  So he says: 

 “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…  I do therefore invite my fellow citizens… to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent BUN-E-FI-CENT Father who dwelleth in the Heavens…  And I … 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, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

Proclamation of Thanksgiving  Washington, D.C.  October 3, 1863

In our nation’s darkest hour, in a crisis of immeasurable magnitude, our president declared a National Day of Thanksgiving. President Lincoln didn’t live in denial.  He addresses the widows, orphans, mourners, and sufferers, that were a result of this war.  He said that we needed Almighty God’s Hand to heal the wounds of our nation. 

Now, over 150 years later with the deep political divisions in our nation, we must again cry out to God to heal the wounds of our nation. May we be like our forefathers and find reasons to be thankful. Instead of complaining and grumbling, give thanks. It’s impossible to have a negative mind and a thankful attitude at the same time. Choose to give thanks.