Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please use the button below to manage your account.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Please purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.
Cloudy with periods of rain. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..
Cloudy with periods of rain. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
Updated: May 4, 2024 @ 11:06 pm
Thanksgiving has seemed to sneak up on me this year. My personal pace as well as the pace of life has seemed to pick up as the fall has come upon us.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a pause to most people over the past year and a half. While many may get busier at Thanksgiving, I try to slow my pace and spend some time appreciating the Creator as well as the people and creation around me.
For the past two years, I have spent some time looking into the history of the first Thanksgiving. It was Nov. 25, 1621. About 100 people landed at Plymouth Rock although they were headed to Virginia. By spring they were down to just over 50 people. It was the Native Americans they found on shore that helped to save the rest. It was the Native Americans who taught them how to plant corn and other crops, hunt and fish. I am told that relationship between the Native Americans and the new Americans lasted about 50 years.
After a very difficult year of hardship and loss, “the pilgrims,” as they became known, came together with the Native Americans to share a meal and a time of Thanksgiving. In fact, it is my understanding that it turned into a several-day feast. The Europeans were thankful to God and to the Native Americans for their survival.
Let me share with you some lessons that I see from looking at this history (you may see some different ones if you look at it). The first is from the pilgrims. I see that no matter what the difficulties, I ought to give thanks. They suffered loss, with the loss of loved ones and hunger and illness. Still, they kept moving forward and felt they had something for which to be thankful. I see in the Native Americans a lesson that even though you show caring and compassion for others, you just might get shafted in your well doing. Others might see your compassion and caring as weakness and take advantage of you. I see that to offer thanksgiving does not necessarily mean that I am in a Cinderella story and I will “live happily ever after.”
It is easy to sit around a table and talk some “turkey” over some turkey. Many of us will share a delicious meal with friends who have hopefully been vaccinated. We will share our thoughts of thankfulness (briefly before the meal) and will even pray for those who don’t have food or have no one to eat with, without inviting any of them to eat with us. A few years ago, I stated to our congregation the Sunday before Thanksgiving that if there was anyone who did not have an invitation for dinner to let me know. After church, an older woman came to me. I invited her to eat with us, even though it would mean that I would have to drive a half-half hour to pick her up and then take her back home. It meant a great deal to her, but even more to our family to have her with us.
I am thankful for the blessings of God to me. I think the best way to demonstrate my thankfulness is to bless others.
Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
The Rev. Ervin E. Milton is pastor of Union Chapel United Church of Christ, Burlington. He can be contacted at eem5050@aol.com.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: How we can demonstrate our appreciation this Thanksgiving: Milton
