To whom we give our thanks

Thanksgiving Day originated in the autumn of 1621 when William Bradford,
governor of Plymouth, invited local Indians to three days of feasting in
gratitude to God for a bountiful harvest.

But Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until 1863, when
President Abraham Lincoln called for the nation to observe a day of thanks
to God. It is noteworthy that 1863 was the bloodiest year in America’s
history — a dark and tragic time. In that year Gen. Robert E. Lee invaded
Pennsylvania. Over 40,000 Americans — from both sides — died in that
invasion, which led to the Battle of Gettysburg. The day after the slaughter
at Gettysburg, on July 4, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant forced the surrender of
31,000 Confederate soldiers at Vicksburg.

Why did America’s leadership see fit to declare Thanksgiving a national
holiday in the middle of the Civil War?

President Lincoln said that Americans had “forgotten God.” It was time,
he said, to acknowledge the many gifts that God had given the nation. After
all, America was kept together by the events of 1863. Lincoln believed this
was God’s doing – not man’s. America was a nation of destiny. God wanted it
to exist, and to continue down its unprecedented path.

Now it is 136 years later. America is the wealthiest, most powerful
country in the world. We enjoy freedoms that other countries only dream
about.

Today America celebrates Thanksgiving once again. For the past few
decades our national existence has been threatened by Russian nuclear
missiles. One day of miscalculation and our prosperity, and our Republic,
could be at an end. Those of us born after 1955 have lived our entire lives
under a cloud. And we have a great deal to be thankful for.

We have made it through one more year without a catastrophe.

Those Americans who no longer believe in God, but who hold atheist views,
must regard our national holiday as a bit absurd. Such people believe that
human ingenuity is responsible for the abundance we now enjoy. Technology
and science are thought by some to be man’s real salvation.

But the hydrogen bomb — man’s most terrible creation — is the true end
product of human ingenuity.

In his old age Carl Jung wrote: “Today we are faced with the problem of a
general moral backwardness which has failed to keep pace with our
scientific, technical, and social progress.”

Man is not his own creator, and mankind cannot save itself. God alone
created us, and God alone can save us. The atheist might claim that mindless
particles are responsible for creating the human race. And he might even
give thanks to such particles. But it is an empty gesture.

Thanksgiving asks us to appreciate the One who made us all. And that is
never an empty gesture.