It’s not about a turkey or a parade. It’s about our nation, led by God, and gratitude for family, friends and the opportunities provided in this land, graced with the liberty and freedom that God our Father has given to us. May your heart be filled with blessings and gratitude on this day.
On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln made a proclamation to set aside a day in this Great Nation to give thanks to God. He wrote it this way, “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” It was at a time of great hardship in America during the swelling of the civil war when the nation was divided against itself, yet functioning the best it could in the midst of such great calamity.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. 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 next 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.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
-Abraham Lincoln
It was never about pilgrims or black Friday xmas sales. It was always about prayer, and healing our great nation under God and restoration “consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union”.
May each of you find peace in your heart this day and know with God you are never alone and never forgotten. So whether you prepare a meal today alone, or you are blessed to share a meal with family and friends, remember your Father in heaven is with you at your table, along with His son and the Holy Spirit. That is the greatest gift of all and the most precious blessing to be thankful for.
And when the meal is done and the evening passes… remember to give thanks again tomorrow and every day for what God has given to you.
KEEP ON PRESSING INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD! PRESS, PRESS, PRESS!
DIANNE
