On this Thursday we
celebrate the American national holiday known as “Thanksgiving Day.” This commemoration was
launched unofficially by a group of Pilgrims who departed permanently from England
on September 6, 1620. After a rather rough two-month sea voyage,
they landed at the site that would later be designated as Plymouth,
Massachusetts. Due to the extreme harshness of their first winter in
The New World (along with a profound lack of preparation), one-half of these
settlers died by the spring of 1621.
Nevertheless, they
were blessed to receive the skillful assistance of Native Americans, who helped
them to plant crops and prepare adequately for the next winter. With
profound gratitude to God for an overflowing harvest, the Pilgrims held a
three-day feast, commencing on December 13, 1621. The governor of
the fledgling Massachusetts Colony dispatched four men who hunted for enough
fowl and deer to feed everyone. The Native Americans celebrated
alongside, with a large aggregation led by King Massasoit and ninety of his
men. On that day Pilgrim Edward Winslow recorded a colonial
proclamation which stated that “by the goodness of God…we are far from
want.”
President Abraham
Lincoln officially inaugurated Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday in 1863,
midway through the American Civil War. Today in the
USA, Thanksgiving has become the most traveled day of the
year. Multiplied millions take to the airways and highways to share
a delightful family day focused on food and fellowship, with the traditional
turkey at the heart of their culinary feast.
It has often been said
that, for Christians, every
day should be a day of thanksgiving. The Word of God clearly agrees
and admonishes the believer, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (I Thessalonians 5:18)
In that thankful frame
of mind, please allow me to share a few things for which I am eternally
grateful to our God. Words cannot describe how much I treasure God’s
grace and mercy, reflected in the life, suffering, death and resurrection of
His only begotten Son. Jesus, from my heart I thank you for living
and dying (and living again) for me. And I am also grateful for the
gift of exceptional and Godly parents, who raised ten children in the fear and
admonition of the Lord and with sufficient capacities to succeed in this world
system, and beyond. I thank God for the siblings that I dearly love
(four sisters and five brothers) and the fact that most of us are yet in the
land of the living. Last December, we
lost our eldest sister, Wilma; and our brother, Dwight, passed on at a very
early age.
I am so grateful,
Lord, for my phenomenal wife, Belinda, for my gifted children, my thirteen
‘sainted’ grandchildren (who can do no wrong), and for two adorable
great-granddaughters. I am highly favored and truly blessed.
Thank You, Lord, for a
reasonable portion of health and strength. Thank You for the use and
activity of my limbs. Thank You for the ability to speak, to hear,
to feel, to smell and to see. Thank You for our lovely home, our
cars, our clothes, our income and the ability to meet our financial
obligations.
Thank You for the
significant Kingdom ministry that you have assigned to us. Thank You
for endowing genuine compassion and a burden for souls. Thank You
for granting us with the will, energy and resources to do our small part in
fulfilling The Great Commission via global missions. Thank You for
the spiritual fruit, gifts and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Thank
You for the opportunity to have received a solid education, for the ability to
think, to reflect, to evaluate and to make sound judgments. Thank
You for the ability to write with clarity and creativity and thank you for the
anointing to teach and proclaim your Word with simplicity and sincerity.
Thank You for your
encouragement, your direction and your wise instruction for righteousness
living. Thank You for allowing me to be called by Your Name. I am a
“Christian,” one of Your own. Thank You for “the church of the
living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (I Timothy
3:15) Thank You for your limitless love and your infinite
kindness. Thank You for picking me up whenever I fail or fall. Thank
You for your blood that cleanses me, your Spirit that teaches me, your Word
that strengthens me and your people who edify me.
Thank you for the all
the things that I have been through, the pluses and the minuses, the
experiences that have shaped me and positioned me for serving others. Thank you that I am still standing. I am eternally grateful, Lord, and I
appreciatively thank YOU…in all things…and for all things. JESUS, WHAT A WONDER YOU ARE! On this Thanksgiving Day, and every day, WE,
your people, are humbly grateful for our great and good CREATOR. From our hearts, LORD, we thank you.
Sisters and brothers,
be continually blessed and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO
MEET YOUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!
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