Have a meaningful Thanksgiving
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Editor,
I just read a message from Zion’s Hope, Marv Rosenthal that provides a wonderful perspective for the Thanksgiving Season.
“Most historians believe the first Thanksgiving was observed at Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts in 1621. The occasion for the celebration was to thank God for the provision of food that would see them through the cold New England winter.
For the next two centuries it was mostly Puritans who, in different colonies and states, observed days for Thanksgiving as occasions during which they could thank God for special blessings. The dates and details were varied but centered on thanksgiving to God.
In 1827, the first female magazine editor and prolific writer by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale launched a 36-year, non-stop campaign to establish Thanksgiving as an official holiday through editorials and sending letters to governors, senators and presidents.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln heeded her call. He saw a unified national Thanksgiving Day as a possible way of uniting our divided nation. In the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln sent out a proclamation pleading with all Americans to ask God on the last Thursday of November each year to “commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and “to heal the wounds of the nation.”
It was not until 1941 that the U.S. Senate passed an amendment to a joint resolution of Congress, which required that Thanksgiving Day be observed on the fourth Thursday of November.
But, in the midst of it all, many Americans have forgotten — or never really understood the real meaning of the day. It is “Thanksgiving,” or simply “giving thanks.” And the One to whom thanks is to be given is God.
Like Thanksgiving, Christmas is also a time to give thanks to our Heavenly Father. At one perfect moment in time, God sent His Son to Earth and changed the world forever. Today, the world marks history from the time of his birth. Have a meaningful Thanksgiving.
Carol Jones
Polson
