gcdonner wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:58 amThank you T1 for reviving this thread. 5 years without giving thanks?
Thanksgiving has a special meaning to my wife and I as her mother's family was here to greet her father's family when they arrived on the Mayflower. My wife is part Wampanoag and her father's family are descended from John Alden, one of the original "Pilgrims".
Whatever the exact circumstances were for that first thanksgiving, the point is that the Pilgrims and their new friends
took time to give thanks to God for his provision.
God used the Indians to help the 50% who survived the first winter
to be able to continue to survive after that.
We are grateful for all that our heavenly father has provided for us, especially for his son's willing sacrifice to deliver us from sin.
One of our traditions, being originally from Massachusetts (the home of Ocean Spray cranberries) is to have mock cherry pie. Not everyone likes it, but I do. My memory of it goes all the way back to my childhood gatherings with the extended family, when my grandmother would make it.
Blessings for this day y'all, from Holladay, Tennessee!
There’s been a lot of thanks giving since 2016, there are a few Thanksgiving threads since 2016.
i was looking for one started more recently by Robert, found this early one, and decided to use it.
This year, because of kidnappings in Haiti, heinous murders in Waukesha, unrest (normalized in media) i was having a hard time with thankfulness, typically easy for me at Thanksgiving ..
Reading and thinking about what these folks endured in their risky voyage, horrific by today’s standards, then, as you say,
loss of 50% of their numbers in their first year - on unwelcoming foreign soil - yet, with the natives they found it in their hearts to be thankful. Those who came before, with their abiding faith, put us to shame. Through faith, they model courage in brutal unsecure circumstances.
i was with my son+his wife in Michigan. Their first attempt at Thanksgiving dinner was a success. My son brined the turkey, my dear DIL baked an apple pie. They were nervous novices, but did well! Her parents were there, very pleased with their daughter’s courage in the kitchen! i thought of many wonderful Thanksgivings-past, and hope these 2 have many yet to come. We remembered those suffering in Haiti, and Waukesha, and elsewhere. We shared messages of hope.
We were able to speak with distant family, something not in any way possible for those in the first hundreds of years.
Years ago, i was touched to learn, when early believers set out on journeys that meant they probably would not return, they would coordinate their daily Bible studies/readings, so that, altho they weren’t physically together, they could be spiritually connected through their readings and faith. i thought this was GENIUS! they could not have done better.
with all we have, i’m not sure we do as well.
