Next week, people all across the United States will be sitting down to a feast with many voicing “thanks.” It’s the national holiday known as “Thanksgiving.” For those who don’t understand the reality of who God is and who we are, they will be thanking an “unknown god,” reserving their thanks for those things they deem good. They will thank the “god of their imagination” for the pleasant things – the happy things – the comfortable things. However, when you understand what Scripture reveals about the true nature of this fallen world, God’s kindness is evident in all things. If we have the right perspective, we won’t ask why a wildfire, hurricane, or an earthquake caused devastation. Instead, we will ask, “Why wasn’t the whole world destroyed by such a catastrophe?” After all, sinful humanity deserves that and much worse. From this perspective, anyone ought to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18) and for all circumstances (Ephesians 5:20).
As sufficient a motivation as that may be for offering thanks, for the Christian, there’s so much more. We have the blessed hope. Not only do we experience God’s general kindness through His restraining hand, whatever hardships we face serve a much greater purpose. Truly, for the Christian, no pain is ever wasted. As the Apostle Paul reminds us, our affliction, whatever it may be, is light and temporary, working in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). Therefore, as God’s people, our reasons for thankfulness in and for every circumstance are exponentially greater. The world should be thankful no matter what the situation, but we should rejoice and be exceedingly glad! God is not only kind to us; He’s at work in us, conforming us to the image of our Savior!
Our forefathers, who were responsible for the day we celebrate as “Thanksgiving,” understood this full well. Just as Paul commands, they gave thanks unto God in and for all circumstances, regardless of whether they were pleasant and comfortable. They never presumed upon God and never questioned His goodness. They were always ready to see the merciful hand of God in all things. They were always looking for His divine purpose in whatever they encountered. They realized that pride, especially before God, is an intolerable sin. They recognized their need to be humbled and corrected. And they sought to view every circumstance of life from an eternal perspective and see every situation as the outworking of His will.
This is especially remarkable when we remember how hard life was at that time. Their lives were short and, for most people, filled with trouble and fraught with pain. Yet, being so grounded in Scripture, they had a keen sense for recognizing God’s blessing and an uncanny ability to be thankful in and for all things. Do you remember the story of the Pilgrims? When they set out for America, they occupied two ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell developed leaks. They had to return to port twice before deciding to make the journey with just the Mayflower. It must have been frustrating. But they didn’t complain to God and they didn’t “just give up.” They pressed on. Crowding everyone onto a single vessel was itself a hardship. 102 passengers and 30 crew members were crammed on a ship little more than 100 feet long. Two people died during the 66-day journey. Because of the delay, they encountered turbulent, damaging weather and reached their destination much later than they had hoped. Once they arrived, they had to live on the tiny ship until they found a place to settle. William Bradford, who would become the governor of the colony, was part of the exploration party. After a month of searching and 3 excursions, they finally located what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. But they returned to the ship to find grim news. Bradford’s wife had slipped overboard and drowned. This was the first of many deaths that would soon follow in the new world. But there was little time for mourning. With winter fast approaching, they had to hastily begin construction on the settlement.
Despite all of this, according to William Bradford, the first thing they did when they departed the ship was to offer thanks to God. He said they “fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth.” The journey was difficult and three people, including his own wife, had perished before the colony ever reached shore. But rather than complaining and questioning God, they gave Him thanks for His mercy and grace.
Their first winter was brutal. Between unrelenting illness and an exhausting workload, nearly half their company died. Far more would have perished were it not for a small tribe of 91 natives who befriended the colonists.
It’s hard to imagine people of our day enduring such hardships and responding the way the Pilgrims did. After the first harvest, they held a feast to give thanks to God. Those who do not understand the goodness and mercy God affords this corrupt creation might respond this way: “Really? Thanks to God? For what? These pilgrims set out to establish a colony where they could worship God according to their convictions and this is how He repaid them?” Such is the arrogant, perverse, and entitled attitude of an ungrateful world of idolaters. The Pilgrims didn’t complain about the delays or hardships or illness or the devastating loss of life. Instead, they thanked God that most had survived the journey. They were grateful that God enabled them to endure such adversity. They praised God that they all did not perish! God didn’t owe them success and they knew it. They realized that whatever success they had was due to the mercy of God.
After that bitter winter, God graciously granted them a season of sufficiency. While the Pilgrims were individuallythankful, William Bradford thought it appropriate to have a corporate gathering explicitly for the purpose of giving thanks to God. We don’t have the exact record of the official proclamation that the governor gave when ordering the feast of thanksgiving, but several historians have attempted to recreate it from the memoirs that have survived. Here’s one of them:
This now nigh a year since we landed, and ye cold winter took a number of ye goodly friends away but ye spring and summer hath been goodly ones. Ye Indians have been friends to us. Look ye around, kind brethren and see ye bounteous crops of the year. Ye goodly Lord hath given us these with His rain and sun. Look far away into the dark forests and see those savages so rude and cruel. Ye gracious Lord hath given us power to make friends with those who might have been, methinks, our bitterest enemy. God hath bestowed upon us many rich blessings, as He did to the Israelites when He delivered them from the land of darkness. In ye Scriptures it is written, ‘when thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God, for the good land which He hath given thee.’ Methinks it meet that we appoint a day for the purpose of offering our thanks to ye God who hath poured such great riches upon us.
The trials of our forefathers were far from over. Two years later, a severe drought and heat wave threatened to extinguish the thriving colony. Even the natives were endangered by the impending famine. Still, the Pilgrims didn’t complain to God about their lot. In fact, they accepted it as God’s good purpose. Listen to the memoirs of Edward Winslow:
In the midst of April we began to set the seed, the weather being then seasonable, which much encouraged us, giving us good hopes of after plenty: the setting season is good till the latter end of May. But it pleased God for our further chastisement, to send a great drought, insomuch, as in six weeks after the latter setting there scarcely fell any rain, so that the stalk that was first set began to send forth the ear before it came to half growth, and that which was later, not likely to yield any at all. Both blade and stalk were hanging the head, and changing the color in such manner, as we judged it utterly dead
In this account, we see that their hopes for any sort of harvest were vanishing the longer the drought continued. But what I find so refreshing is the way he described the draught: “But it pleased God for our further chastisement, to send a great drought.” He didn’t complain to God and say, “Why us? Haven’t we suffered enough?” The biblical word chastisement primarily refers to training and instruction. They recognized their need for correction. And they readily accepted this hardship as the hand of God for their sanctification. That is precisely what the words of “We Gather Together” proclaim: “He chastens and hastens His will to make known.” In other words, God chastens His children that they might learn His will without delay. This is a blessing, not a torment. As the trial continued, some began to lose heart. But rather than complaining and resorting to self-pity, they were moved to action. Listen to some more of Winslow’s account:
The most courageous were now discouraged, because God which hitherto had been our only Shield and Supporter, now seemed in his anger to arm himself against us; and who can withstand the fierceness of his wrath? These, and the like considerations moved not only every good man privately to enter into examination with his own estate between God and his conscience, and so to humiliation before him: but also more solemnly to humble ourselves together before the Lord by fasting and prayer.
In due time, the Lord sent relief and a bountiful harvest was granted. Winslow concludes his account by giving glory to God with all thankfulness who “dealt so graciously with us, whose name for these and all other his mercies towards his Church and chosen ones, by them be blessed and praised now and evermore, Amen.”
This was the attitude of humble thanksgiving that gave rise to the national holiday we celebrate. But only the people of God can truly appreciate the depth of gratitude we owe our Lord. We can offer thanks to our gracious God in the midst of our most trying circumstances for His providential hand is guiding all things for our good and His glory. This is the rich heritage of our thanksgiving celebration.
Our series of posts on covenantal fatherhood will resume on December 1.
