Thanksgiving's Strong , Abundant Spiritual Roots

Even though it seems a bit late this year, Thanksgiving is fast approaching and it's a holiday everyone enjoys.

Indeed, people have always pointed to Thanksgiving as a lovely day for family and friends that all Americans can celebrate together regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. And this is true. Who doesn't enjoy Thanksgiving?

But beyond it's universality, America's Thanksgiving has strong spiritual roots that go back a long way.

You see, Thanksgiving is much more than turkey, stuffing, and football (as good as those things are). Thanksgiving is a national holiday that is explicitly religious in nature. History teaches us that as a nation of faith, we have set aside such a day to thank our Lord for the many blessings He has bestowed.

Consider the following:

• In 1789, in his first year in office, President George Washington called for a day of Thanksgiving because “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”
• In 1815, President James Madison issued a proclamation for “a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness.”

After Madison, however, Thanksgiving reverted to a regional celebration in New England for 48 years. 

• Then, in 1863, in the midst of America's bloody civil war, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale petitioned the Lincoln administration that a day of Thanksgiving "now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."

Lincoln, who carried the weight of America's historic rupture on his shoulders and often sought divine guidance, responded to Hale's urgings and called on Americans that year to “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

Since then, in proclaiming Thanksgiving each year, presidents of both parties have turned to God in their Thanksgiving Day proclamations. 

In 1947, President Truman declared Thanksgiving a day for "expressions of gratitude to Almighty God for the many blessings which He has heaped upon us." Fifty years later, in his proclamation, President Clinton asked all Americans  to "assemble in their homes, places of worship, or community centers to share the spirit of goodwill and prayer; to express heartfelt thanks to God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us." 

Significantly, during dark days of wrenching national grief, just one week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a Thanksgiving message of national unity declaring: "I come before you to ask your help, to ask your strength, to ask your prayers that God may guard this republic and guide my every labor."

All of this is worth remembering as Thanksgiving approaches once again.

As difficult, divisive and polarizing as our present plight might seem, America has been through far worse times. And during such times, including two world wars, the civil war and the American revolution itself, our nation has humbly turned to the Almighty again and again, seeking His strength, guidance and abundant grace.

This Thanksgiving, as always - in God we trust!