Thanksgiving doesn't get the attention it deserves.

 

Thanksgiving has become all about eating turkey and all the fixings. Family gatherings and playing games out in the yard. Or for some, it’s another day of being homeless and hungry. Thanksgiving wasn’t meant to be either.

Thanksgiving, sadly, many Americans skip over the truth of how God was faithful to lead Christians who longed to openly serve Him, leave their homelands and everything behind, and risk their lives to set sail for a New World. Historian Rod Gragg explains in The Pilgrim Chronicles how, in England around 1606, the Pilgrims began as a group of Christian separatists seeking to worship Jesus in the purity of the Gospel, based on their beliefs and understanding of the Geneva Bible.

However, what they wanted to do was illegal and prohibited, resulting in harsh persecution for the Pilgrims. So they fled to Holland around 1609. But that was short-lived, as their children were being influenced to follow worldly Dutch ways in the Netherlands, prompting the Pilgrims to seek new living options. The hearing of the Jamestown settlement, the Pilgrims set out to borrow funds and request King James’ permission to make the Mayflower voyage.

Let me stop here, and let’s focus on what exactly is happening. Here’s a group of people about to get on a ship and sail off to somewhere sight unseen. That takes incredible strength and trust in God, not to mention an inner drive that they could not give up.

Columbus had sailed in fourteen ninety-two, reaching the Americas in October. The Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower in sixteen twenty, about a hundred twenty-eight years later. Thanksgiving is about the faith of the Pilgrims. Our foundation was laid in biblical truth by the Pilgrims and led America’s Founders to establish godly principles. These biblical truths have given us the right to worship God freely.

Lincoln signed it into law on October 3, eighteen sixty-three, just before the Civil War got any worse. It set the last Thursday in November as the official day. He honored Sarah Josepha Hale’s request by proclaiming the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.

So you see, Thanksgiving involves a whole lot more than whether Publix has its turkeys on sale.

Put yourself on that boat that morning. Take very few possessions with you. Unsure of whether you’ll even live through the trip. Dealing with the elements, sea sickness, and perhaps even the loss of loved ones.

Our lives stand this Thanksgiving on the shoulders of some incredible fellow human beings. Surely, we can shut down the TV noise in the background, get quiet, and bow our heads to stand in silence, thanking these brave individuals for the freedoms we have today, our lifestyles, and so much more.

Our hearts should burst with joy over this Holiday before we put the last of the dinner preparations in the refrigerator, shut off the light, and head to bed.

I hope sometime during your celebration, you will take stock of all your blessings and realize they came with a cost that other people paid for you.

I bless you. Happy Thanksgiving!