Pastor Nancy's Reflections

“Always in everything give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” Eph. 5:20

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I Thess. 5:16

The traditional basics for celebrating Thanksgiving in the US are turkey and pumpkin pie. After that, the way an individual family celebrates the holiday varies a lot. 

Over the years, the Thanksgiving Holiday has varied remarkably in my own life. In my childhood in Detroit, our Thanksgiving gathering was my mom and dad and my two brothers and one sister. The six of us were not near our larger clan, most of whom lived in Ohio. Nevertheless, my mother always did a large traditional meal with turkey, several pies, marsh-mellowed sweet potatoes, homemade biscuits and lots of gravy.  She rose very early to begin roasting our turkey; and I would awake to the aroma of the bird warming the house.   

At least one notable Thanksgiving we drove to the home of Dad’s cousin near Cleveland so he could watch the football game between the Detroit Lions and - - some other team. The nationally televised game being played in Detroit was made unavailable to Lions fans because of a custom called “blackout.” The idea was that people would not pay to go to the game if they could see it on TV. 

Over the years of my life Thanksgiving has been celebrated sometimes with many children and grandchildren gathered around the table; and once with just Mike and me when our children all lived far away. The year of Covid our family celebrated with a gathering in our open garage. Each family brought a pie; and we sat six feet apart - - or almost.

This national celebration all began over 400 years ago in the autumn of the year 1621, when Governor Bradford, in the colony of Massachusetts, invited Chief Massasoit and ninety of his tribe to a three-day feast. The Indians brought their own covered dishes of fish, cornbread and succotash. 

In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln in his Thanksgiving proclamation for that year said:

We [in the United States] have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own; intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverent and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.

A very appropriate thought for this year, and a fitting reminder to all of us as we, in our many ways and places celebrate our Thanksgiving feast, 2024. May we all remember to give thanks for the rich supply of blessings that are ours, and that all good things come to us from the deep and eternal love of God.

Blessings,

Pastor Nancy Becker

Parish Associate