A number of nations
celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
The dates range from early October
to late November.
Days of Thanksgiving in America
date to its colonial period.
They were proclaimed by church
leaders, governors and even the Continental Congress.
In each case a Day of Thanksgiving was set aside to give
thanks to God.
It was President George Washington
who proclaimed that Americans should set aside November 26, 1789 as a “day of
public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful
hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God."
From then on. the observance
of Thanksgiving varied from state to state.
On October 3, 1863, while
America was still in the middle of its Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln
proclaimed Thanksgiving should be observed on the final Thursday in November.
Lincoln’s proclamation
concluded with the following: “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.”
Because of the Civil War,
those in opposition to Lincoln refused to adopt the date he proclaimed until
the 1870’s.
In the late 1930’s President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed
that Thanksgiving Day be observed on the fourth Thursday in November.
In 1941, a joint resolution of Congress officially recognized
the date change and it was signed into law by Roosevelt.
From its very beginnings throughout the course of its
history, Thanksgiving Day is about giving thanks to God in all circumstances.
Unfortunately, with each passing year, we push God further
away from the concept of Thanksgiving.
We find more and more ways to distract ourselves from its original
intent.
The day after Thanksgiving has now become the biggest
shopping day of the year.
Many stores are now opting to remain open on Thanksgiving
Day.
I believe it is not too late to return the day to its
original purpose.
I recall a story told by a Vietnam veteran of his experiences
on one particular Thanksgiving Day.
He and his fellow soldiers had been consuming rations for a
very long time.
When Thanksgiving Day arrived, helicopters flew in and brought
he and his fellow soldiers a traditional and hot Thanksgiving meal.
But that was not what made the day special.
A satellite telephone unit the size of a bus had also been
flown in and set up.
With it, he and rest of the men were each allowed to make a
three-minute phone call home.
Some waited in line for over 8 hours just for the opportunity
to make their three-minute call.
That three-minute call home meant everything to this man and
the others.
Perhaps we can start there.
Paul reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven.
Perhaps we could start with a three-minute prayer to God
thanking Him and ask Him to help us better put things in perspective.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NET) - Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in
every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your
requests to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will
guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
I will be back here on Friday, December 8, 2017
