THANKSGIVING - a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens

We all know about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims and Native Americans. We all have our favorite meals that typically include things as turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pie, and something made with Jell-O. And we all have our favorite traditions and memories – which mine include Mom’s Turkey Plates and Grandma Roe Salad (which has no veggies in it, because “Vegetables are for children”).

   But Thanksgiving really became what it is today because of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. After the Battle at Gettysburg, President Lincoln wanted to unify these divided United States, so he declared the fourth Thursday in November as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” It was not the first such day, but in my opinion the most poignant.

   As I read his words (in the Proclamation printed below), I realized that this was the middle of the Civil War (1861-1865). President Lincoln had been watching brother fight against brother, and young men and old fall dead all around him – yet still he could praise God for the blessings that he and this country cherished -- for “the gracious gifts of the Most High God”.

   And he, as both man and president, specifically petitioned:  “I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

   We all have much to be grateful for – much of which we owe to Lincoln and the many others that have come before us. I personally have so much to be grateful for. And as I spent a few minutes on Facebook today, I observed the heartfelt gratitude of friends near and far. And as my Thanksgiving Plea today, with the Civil Unrest of this week, I am reminded of how grateful I am for the peaceful country in which we live – and I pray for peace for those engaged in these conflicts. May we all ever be grateful.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863

   The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

   No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

   It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

   In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

   Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

   Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.