What is Thanksgiving Day about? It is about thanking God for what He has given us, for His divine providence. However, that does not explain why we celebrate Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday. What precipitated our nation’s desire to turn to our Lord and thank Him?
What is the true story of Thanksgiving Day? Rush Limbaugh tells his version every year, The True Story of Thanksgiving – The Rush Limbaugh Show. He was happy to see The Federalist publishing its own versions. Here are just a couple.
- Thanksgiving Is As Much Celebration Of Abundance As A Relief From Loss (thefederalist.com)
- What You Know About The First Thanksgiving Is Probably Wrong (thefederalist.com).
When did Thanksgiving Day become a national holiday? Surprisingly, during a time of great strife and suffering, the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln called for a national day of thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln (abrahamlincolnonline.org). His words remain worthy of our attention. However, Lincoln was not the first president to call for a day of thanksgiving. That honor belongs to our first president, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789 (archives.gov).
Oddly, thanksgiving seems something we are more likely to do when we are either recovering from hard times, or we begin to realize just how much worse it might have been. What causes us the most difficult times? Strife. Even the pilgrims suffered in New England because they had been driven from their homeland by religious persecution.
Because 2020 has been such a difficult year, this year we should be fervently celebrating Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, COVID-19 panicmongers are doing their level best to keep families from gathering this Thanksgiving Day. Emmy award winning Governor Andrew Cuomo (Andrew Cuomo blasted over his Emmy speech for his Covid response as thousands ‘murdered in care homes’ (the-sun.com)) is among those leading the pack, Cuomo predicts ‘tremendous spike’ in COVID cases after Thanksgiving (wwnytv.com).
Of course, the biggest source of strife in our country is now over the results of the election. Did Democrats cheat? Unfortunately, it seems all too likely, and it does not help that Democrats have derided any attempt to audit the results. Consider what happened in Wayne County, Michigan, for example.
- Republican Canvassers Rescind Their Votes to Certify Wayne County, Michigan, Results (breitbart.com)
- BREAKING: Wayne Co Election Board GOP Members Rescind Their Certification Votes (redstate.com)
The second link above, to the redstate.com article, contains a video (in a tweet) that is absolutely appalling.
Consider also the position of the General Services Administration (GSA) this year. Read GSA Administrator Emily W. Murphy’s letter to Joe Biden, GSA Asserts Biden as President-Elect in Letter [Full Text] – Conservative Daily News. Then consider CNN’s uncompromising view, GSA: How the 16-day blockade on Biden’s transition finally ended – CNNPolitics.
Is the strife all because of Democrats? No. Even the start of the American Civil War cannot completely be blamed upon the Democratic Party and the race-based slavery that party insisted upon. Still, Democrats must bear the brunt of the blame. After the behavior of Democrats the last four years, Conservatives have plenty of good reasons to suspect Democrats morally capable of stealing the election. The following is not close to a complete list.
- Charges of Russian collusion without evidence. A special prosecutor who spent tens of millions and came up with nothing.
- Charges of impeachment over a phone call just Trump asked for help with an investigation of Joe Biden? Trump had no reason to suspect Biden might be corrupt? Seriously?
- Repeated riots across the country because the police are supposedly racists. When are Democrats going to figure out that virtually none of their accusations against the police ever make any sense after the evidence is examined?
- Democrats insisted upon radically relaxing the rules for election integrity. Then, they protested their innocence and derided Republicans — nothing to see here — when Republicans complained and pointed to numerous problems.
- Big Tech censored us, including President Trump. They also manipulated us. Google, in particular has tried to manipulate us with great subtlety, Google Shifted a ‘Minimum’ of 6 Million Votes in 2020 Election: Dr. Robert Epstein (theepochtimes.com) and Dr. Robert Epstein: Google Will Shift 10% of Voters to Make Trump a ‘Blip in History’ (breitbart.com).
So, I wonder. Are there at least three types of Democrats?
- Are Democrats politicians, the people running the show, just ambitious and crooked? Have they not have shown themselves capable of doing and saying anything?
- Are there Democrats voting for handouts? Do these people only care about the handouts? Does it really make any difference whether these Democrats are on welfare or corporate executives receiving corporate welfare? Anyway we look at it, these people votes can be bought with other people’s money.
- Are some Democrats, perhaps most, true believers? Are the Democrats who actually believe what the Democratic Party peddles as its gospel ridden with guilt? Do they vote for the handouts and environmental nonsense like global warming because they have been taught to be ashamed of America? Can we look at what is taught in America’s schools and sold as news and emphatically say, YES?
What should we think? Consider two different Bible passages. The first speaks of the humble and the wicked.
New American Standard Bible
7 [a]Rest in the Lord and wait [b]patiently for Him;
Do not get upset because of one who is successful in his way,
Because of the person who carries out wicked schemes.
8 Cease from anger and abandon wrath;
Do not get upset; it leads only to evildoing.
9 For evildoers will be eliminated,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.
10 Yet a little while and the wicked person will be no more;
And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.
11 But the humble will inherit the land
And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
The second passage considers the merits of waiting for the final judgement.
New American Standard Bible
4 This is the way any person is to regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required [a]of stewards that one be found trustworthy. 3 But to me it is an insignificant matter that I would be examined by you, or by any human [b]court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself; however I am not vindicated by this, but the one who examines me is the Lord. 5 Therefore do not go on [c]passing judgment before [d]the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of human hearts; and then praise will come to each person from God.
Who is wicked? Not for us to judge. We have laws, and we must calmly enforce our laws by punishing those who refuse to obey them, but we cannot judge each others souls. All we can do is help each other to obey God.
This Thanksgiving Day we need to thank our Lord things have not gotten any worse. Have we lost confidence in our election system? Yes. Is there still time to fix our election system? With our Lord’s help, yes. Can we still convince our Democrat neighbors to come to their senses and care about making our constitutional republic work? No. All we can do is set a good example. We can do our best to make our constitutional republic work. Otherwise, we must strive for patience and pray. It is God who changes hearts. Consider. Pastors really do preach to the choir.
What matters is what our Lord wants us to do. He gave us three types of institutions: our families, our churches, and our government. God gave us the responsibility for serving each other within each of these institutions. Unfortunately, many of us have neglected our responsibilities to make our government work properly. Now we have the opportunity to thank God for reminding us of our responsibility to make our government work. Now, because we risk losing it, we can look at what our Lord has given us and be honestly thankful because we can appreciate its value.
Why would anyone choose to reject divine providence? We don’t want to admit the everything is about God, that He even exists. Even we were created for the glory of our Lord, and that is scary.
Additional References
- What is divine providence? (compellingtruth.org)
- Is There Divine Providence? What It Means and What the Bible Really Ssays (biblestudytools.com)
- What is divine providence? | GotQuestions.org
- Thanksgiving 2020 – Tradition, Origins & Meaning – HISTORY
- Thanksgiving Day in the United States (timeanddate.com)
Citizen Tom 
I always happy reading your holiday teachings…and you should know I pulled out your Thanksgiving post from last year and shared it again today—thank you always Tom!!
@Julie
WOW! Thank you!