Thanksgiving!

Well this week I am spending some much needed home time with family. David Jr is home from College and my mother has come for a visit (for the USA Thanksgiving Holiday).

The tradition goes all the way back to 1621 (if you are from Canada, 1578) when the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast. This colony was not the first permanent English settlement in the new world. That honor goes to Jamestown (1607). However, while the first permanent settlement was established in search of economic opportunity, this one was established for religious purposes. Rather than being entrepreneurs like many of the settlers of Jamestown, a significant proportion of the settlers of Plymouth (later called Pilgrims) were fleeing religious persecution and searching for a place to worship as they saw fit.

Throughout their first brutal winter, most of the Pilgrims remained on board the ship they had arrived in, known as the Mayflower.  In March, the surviving settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki tribesman who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with a man named Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe. Squanto had been kidnapped and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. I find it amazing how this former slave was able to forgive and then come to the aid of the race that had enslaved him.

Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years. In the Autumn of 1621 the settlers and natives held a feast before God for his provision. This feast was a celebration of thanks to God for allowing the colony (1/2 of the original settlers had lost their lives) to survive their first winter and collect a bountiful harvest the next fall.

Today we find it challenging to think of surviving a winter or facing starvation, scurvy or exposure to the elements. However, today I wanted to stop and reflect on all we have to be thankful for.

I am thankful that God allowed his Word to spread to the “New World” through early colonists. I am thankful for religious freedom in a country that still allows me to worship as I see fit. I am thankful for a wife who is supportive and loving. I am thankful for a mother who taught me how to love Jesus. I am thankful for the ability to teach my children about the giver of all good and perfect gifts (James 1:17). 

And I am thankful for you!