Thanksgiving

This upcoming Thursday is Thanksgiving -- a day traditionally reserved by Americans to thank God for the blessings bestowed upon us.  Started by President George Washington in 1789, established as a National Holiday in 1863 by President Lincoln and formalized as the fourth Thursday of November by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, Americans have traditionally reserved this day in recognition of God. During a time where the world seems to be forgetting our Christian legacy  and the traditions of religious freedom we have left for America, now more  than ever is a time to reflect on the faith that built and sustained this great  nation of ours, because it will be this sort of faith that builds America again. When most people think of the first Thanksgiving, they think of Plymouth  and the Pilgrims in 1621.  In truth, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated  in Virginia at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619: "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." ...and then there are the much more famous accounts of the Pilgrims'  Thanksgiving at Plymouth in 1623: "They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports." It's refreshing to remember that America was built by religious men and  women such as these.  While history books today rarely mention the concept  of a nation giving thanks to God for the blessings of a harvest, it's important  to remember that as a nation -- and not so long ago -- Americans traditionally  gave thanks to God as a republic of free men and women. ...and that's something to be thankful for.  AMEN.