Liberty and Thanksgiving
Though I penned this last year, I think it’s especially appropriate given the current situation our nation finds itself in. Feel free to share and pass along:
The Pilgrims were refugees; 102 puritans who fled the persecution of the Church of England. On September 6th, 1620, they reluctantly set sail for a nearly three month journey in rough seas to a new world. Upon arrival the voyagers signed the Mayflower Compact, America’s original document of civil government predicated on principles of self-rule.
Starvation and sickness during the ensuing New England winter killed almost half their population, but through prayer and hard work, and with the assistance of their Indian friends, the Pilgrims reaped a rich harvest in the summer of 1621.
But that is only half the story.
That abundant bounty was short-lived. Under pressure from the investors funding their colony, the Pilgrims reluctantly entered into a ruinous financial arrangement – holding all the fruits of their labor in common and sending back half of that to their overseas backers. This disastrous system combined with a significant drought resulted in severe famine and blight. In response the Pilgrims set apart a solemn day of humiliation, to once again seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer.
According to their writings, rain returned that very evening.
Soon there after the colonists abandoned their failed communal arrangement in favor of the free market, assigning every family a parcel of land and restoring private property rights. Through hard work and with blessings from God, the colony soon thrived once again and they celebrated with what we now know simply as Thanksgiving. Colonist Edward Winslow noted the Pilgrims response as thus: “[W]e returned glory, honor, and praise, with all thankfulness, to our good God, which dealt so graciously with us…”
In the many years since, we often describe our national character as based on self-reliance, but that is only so insofar as we acknowledge that our ultimate reliance is on Almighty God. The original American Thanksgiving Day centered not on harvest feasting but on gathering together for public thanksgiving for God’s favor and provision.
What the Pilgrims sought was liberty—but most of all religious liberty. More than merely an adjunct or afterthought to our manifold freedoms, our forbears knew that religious liberty is the centerpiece of freedom: A nation that freely gives thanks is a nation that will remain free.
But today, we face increasing pressure to yield that individual freedom and put our trust in government rather than in God. Like the Pilgrims, and many generations since, we should hold sure that whatever travails and straits we navigate, if we remain steadfast in faith and obedience to God rather than the whims of man, then God will see us through under His care.
In the words of President Reagan: “While never willing to bow to a tyrant, our forefathers were always willing to get to their knees before God. When catastrophe threatened, they turned to God for deliverance. When the harvest was bountiful, the first thought, was thanksgiving to God… Through the storms of Revolution, Civil War, and the great World Wars, as well as during times of disillusionment and disarray, the nation has turned to God in prayer for deliverance… We as a nation should never forget this source of strength… Today we have more to be thankful for than our pilgrim mothers and fathers who huddled on the edge of the New World that first Thanksgiving Day could ever dream. We should be grateful not only for our blessings, but for the courage and strength of our ancestors which enable us to enjoy the lives we do today.”
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