It was a time very much like the one in which we find ourselves today.  A time of intense struggle for our nation.  Like now, there was a war going on.  Like today, many families had fathers and sons and brothers and other loved ones far away from home facing the prospect of battle and the possibility of never returning home, or doing so with severe injuries.  Just as we are facing today, it was a most difficult time economically, with many people out of work and not certain how they were going to get by financially.  It was a time when the morals and the very fabric of our society were under attack.  It was not one of those bright and shining moments in our history.

And yet, in the midst of all the challenges and the struggles, our nation’s president called us as citizens to participate in something unprecedented since the founding of the country:  a national day of thanksgiving. 

It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.  I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens

. . . 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.

Abraham Lincoln

-Thanksgiving proclamation, October 3, 1863

With these words, President Lincoln inaugurated the first Thanksgiving holiday for the United States.  It is a tradition which we continue to this day.  A wonderful and most fitting time in which we as a nation pause to remember our God and the incredible ways in which He has blessed us.  In the activities of this week, amid the joy of reunions with cherished loved ones and the enjoyment of the feasts we will share, may we remember to focus on the great God who is the source of all blessings and has given us such abundant reason to celebrate!

Heap high the board with plenteous cheer, and gather to the feast,

And toast the sturdy Pilgrim band whose courage never ceased.

Give praise to that All-Gracious One by whom their steps were led,

And thanks unto the harvest's Lord who sends our daily bread.

-The First Thanksgiving Day

Alice Williams Brotherton