First Thanksgiving

First Published November 22, 2016

                                                    

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34

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Every fourth Thursday in November in the United States, millions of people celebrate Thanksgiving, This tradition began in 1621, 395 years ago. The colonists, having left Plymouth, England on the Mayflower ship a year earlier, had endured a harsh first winter, losing half of passengers by the first March.

One of the first Native Indians, Squanto, of the Pawtuxet tribe, helped the settlers learn how to cultivate corn, extract maple sap, catch fish in the rivers, and recognize poisonous plants.  He also had even earlier, been kidnapped by an English sea captain, sold into slavery, and then he escaped back to America via a sailing vessel.  And yet he helped the suffering settlers. Doesn’t this sound like another person in the Bible we’ve heard about?

In Genesis we can read about Jacob’s son Joseph, the brothers selling him into slavery, and his false imprisonment courtesy of his boss’s wife. While in jail Joseph interprets several inmates’ dreams, but was forgotten for two years before Pharaoh’s wine taster remembered him and told the king about Joseph’s good deeds.

Joseph, model prisoner, interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, was pardoned and given the position of CEO of Egypt.  He oversaw all the preparations to keep the country safe during the prophesied seven years of famine.  He was so efficient that rulers from neighboring lands, including his brothers, came to him for help. And after all that he endured, Joseph helped.

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But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth

and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Genesis 45:7

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This Thanksgiving, let’s not only express our gratitude to our mighty God for the year’s bounty, but also let us recognize the people, like Squanto and Joseph, who found healing and divine purpose doing the work of God set before them.

Dear God, this is the time when, as a nation, we give thanks for the bountiful blessings that we have.  Help us to never forget to whom gratitude is due, and the people, instruments of your mercy and grace that are messengers of those blessings.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Copyright 2016 by Karen Vaughn