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IN ALL THINGS GIVE THANKS
by Ralphetta Aker, Anti-Racism Committee Member

As we enter this season where we “set aside” time to formally give thanks, it is fitting that we pause and reflect on the reasons for which we are thankful.  Colossians 3:15-17 instructs us as followers of Christ to “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful…And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”  
 
Christ’s word through Paul is clear, we are to give thanks to God the Father through His Son Jesus.  Early in school, we are taught the story we commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621.  Less widely known is an earlier Thanksgiving celebration in Virginia in 1619 by English settlers who had just landed at Berkeley Hundred, a Virginia colony, aboard the ship Margaret.
 
Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally since October 3,1789, following a proclamation by President George Washington in response to a request by Congress designating for "the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving" to be held on "Thursday the 26th day of November."   President Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday and from there each, mainly New England state (not the American South) scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday, some as early as October and others as late as January. 
 
In 1846, Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer and editor of Godey Lady’s Book began her advocacy for a national holiday of Thanksgiving and for 17 years wrote letters to the presidents, editorials and articles advocating for a day of Thanksgiving celebrated by all states on the same day.  Hale believed that a unifying day could help ease growing tensions and divisions between the north and the south.  In September 1863, Hale wrote to both President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward urging them to declare a national day of Thanksgiving.

The letter she wrote to Lincoln convinced him to support legislation establishing a national holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863. The new national holiday was considered a unifying day after the stress of the Civil War. Hale's efforts earned her the nickname "Mother of Thanksgiving".  
 
On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln issued Presidential Proclamation 106. With this Proclamation, the United States had a national day of Thanksgiving, on the last Thursday of November every year. He wrote:
 
“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, 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.”

President Lincoln’s words ring with the tone of the writer of 2 Chronicles 7:14,
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”


While the traditional story of the "First Thanksgiving" has been reexamined to include multiple perspectives, the proclamation of this first Thanksgiving holiday remain true for us today.  In a world that is broken, where people are divided by race, nationality, gender, and political affiliation, we should this Thanksgiving and throughout time “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.”  Psalm 107:1-3 (ESV) instructs us “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!” This Thanksgiving may we gather in unity remembering and giving thanks for the sacrifice of Christ, the Love of the Father and the Power of His Spirit and join in singing praises and Hallelujahs to His name for it is only by His Almighty Hand that our land will be healed. 

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