| NOVEMBER 25, 2014 -- A time of gratitude and friendship
Most Americans, learning about Thanksgiving’s origin, hear or read about the destitute Pilgrims who suffered greatly during their first bitter winter in America. Many Pilgrims got sick and half of them died.
What we don’t focus on enough is the fact that Native Americans took pity of the Pilgrims. They befriended the newcomers and gave them food. They taught them how to survive the vicious cold months.
Then, when the earth grew warm again, the natives taught the Pilgrims how to grow various crops and how to store any surplus. It was primarily because of this helpfulness that the Pilgrims began to eke their way from disaster to fruitfulness.
It is no wonder that when the Pilgrims had their first successful harvest, they invited their neighbors to celebrate with them. The natives didn’t come empty-handed. They furnished venison, wild turkeys and probably vegetables from storage. It was, more or less, a potluck affair. The Pilgrim leaders prayed gratefully at the occasion.
We can be confident that an unseen but not unexpected Guest was very much present that day.
~Come sit with us, Father, and know our Thanksgiving.~ |
