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“Where Did the Pilgrims Go?”
A few days ago, I went to a big box store to grab some lumber for a project. It was mid-October, and I know I shouldn’t have been shocked, but I was. It dawned on me that Halloween hadn’t arrived yet and Christmas decorations along with the “special buys” were already all over the store. I had this thought, “What about Thanksgiving, did we skip it?” As I pondered this situation, I think the Thanksgiving holiday is getting the short shrift. When I was a child, I remember having plays in elementary school about the Pilgrims and the Indians sharing a meal. The stories of the first Thanksgiving were always told in those classes. By the time Jr. High and High School rolled around, I had begun to learn about the ways of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The first year after landing, the system used by Governor William Bradford was communal. The colony would have a common storehouse. The group almost starved to death because of the socialism and their communal ways, as it always does bring out the worst in men. After that first year, only 38 of the original 100 survived the harsh winter. (A side note: NYC may be in for some hard times).
Back in the day, I always looked forward to watching the Dallas Cowboys playing football on Thanksgiving Day. Those were the days when the Cowboys were America’s Team, Tom Landry was America’s coach, and things were right in the world. But all that seems to have changed. Gradually at first and now it seems like it is falling off a cliff at a rapid rate of speed. Those early Pilgrims were a religious lot. They made a big deal of their love for God and His book, The Bible. The stories of these Christians giving thanks to God are a part of the original fabric of America and our foundations which are Judeo-Christian, no matter the denials from secularist.
We may not be able to get others on board, but we can be a thankful people personally, in our families, and in our church family. Earlier I mentioned Elementary School. In my early years, first and second grade specifically, we still had Bible reading in class at the beginning of the day. One of the Bible passages read each year was Psalm 100. We actually committed it to memory. Psalm 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” Tucked away in this little five verse Psalm are beautiful themes.
1. We are called to worship. V.2, 4. We are to serve the Lord and are to enter into His presence. We are to come to where His presence is. The call to worship during the time of the Psalms was the Temple. Israel was commanded to come to Jerusalem, Temple location, on certain days during the year, the Holy Days. These are days set aside as special for the Lord. In the church-age, we are the Temple of the Lord. Each of us has the sweet Holy Spirit that indwells us. Our lives should revel in and reveal the Lord’s presence. We do this as individuals. But we also do it corporately. The Psalm is written to the whole nation of people. When we come to worship on a special day, (think Sunday) this worship as a group is a beautiful thing to behold.
2. We acknowledge our creation. V.3. “…it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” Way back in 1863, Abraham Lincoln knew that it was the Lord that gave us our start and as a nation we should be grateful as a people. Never in the history of the whole wide world has God blessed a nation materially as He has the United States of America. I think it is humorous among the scientists, that study origins, that they are now well down the road in rejecting what once was the holy grail in explaining how everything began. Theories such as the “Big Bang” are rapidly falling out of favor. Once again, the scriptures are light years ahead of the God haters.
3. We are Thankful. V.4. I for one am thankful for all the Lord has done. I have never gotten over the truth that Jesus loved me enough to die for me, paying a debt I could never payoff. I am grateful for the Lord’s direction in my life from spouse, children and grandchildren, extended family, and church family to having the freedom to worship God as I see fit. I am grateful that each week the goodness of God overwhelms me. I don’t have to go to church; I get to go to church. I don’t have to read the Bible; I get to read the Bible. I don’t have to pray; I get to pray to a God that knows me personally. I want to have the attitude of the Pilgrims, one of Thanksgiving. While those godly men and women are relegated to being second tier in importance at the big box stores and society at large, I get to remember them fondly and count them as my brothers and sisters in the Christian faith. They were the ones that brought the culture of God to a pagan land and what a difference that has made for all of mankind.
My, my, my what a wonderful Lord we have.