Dr. Lawrence Butler, The Bridge Church, Pembroke.

Thanksgiving is one of the most celebrated holidays in the United States. It is not always commemorated as perhaps it should be, but is observed by most Americans.

The first Thanksgiving celebration seems to have occurred between the new English settlers known as the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans. There are few records that come to us from this period and so not much is known about this particular meal menu. It is known that the Pilgrims hunted fowl, including swans, and quite possibly provided some for the dinner. The Wampanoag most likely brought deer to the ceremony. Some scholars even point out that lobster and seal were plentiful in this area and may have been on the menu as well.

This was a day of peace, but the two groups had many days of fighting and turmoil before this time.

A treaty was negotiated by the Wampanoag chief Massasoit that mostly stopped the fighting and allowed the new settlers the opportunity to establish their homes.

For about a year the two groups worked together in a way that strengthened the bond between them. Thus, the celebration day of new settlers and Native Americans as they gave thanks for surviving the rough winter and gleaning a new harvest.

Thanksgiving became established in the US as a recognized holiday in 1789. It was intended to be a day to praise and thank God for our blessings and ask Him to heal our nation. It became an official national holiday in 1863 when President Lincoln declared it, “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 Him for such singular blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience” implore the Almighty to heal the wounds of war. This proclamation was announced during the dark days of our Civil War.

Let us remember the words of the Lord as spoken to Solomon, king of Israel, on the day the new temple was dedicated in Jerusalem.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” ( II Chronicles 7:14). I think it’s time we again thanked our God for His blessings and asked for healing for our nation.