ValueSpeak
A Weekly Column
By Joseph Walker
GIVING THANKS TO GOD
1863 wasn’t an easy year during which to be thankful.
Sure, there were good things that happened in 1863.
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The Homestead Act made fertile
farmland available to many who would never have been able to obtain land
otherwise. Construction started on the first Transcontinental Railroad. Henry
Ford, who would change the world with his inventions and industrial vision, was
born.
But for the most part it was a long, slow, painful
year, filled with violence, suffering and war. So of course President Abraham
Lincoln thought it was the perfect time to proclaim a National Day of
Thanksgiving.
"In the midst of a civil war of unequalled
magnitude and severity," President Lincoln wrote, "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 theatre of
military conflict . . . Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the
fields of peaceful industry to the national defence
have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe has enlarged
the borders of our settlements, and the mines . . . 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," President Lincoln continued.
"They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with
us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."
Therefore President Lincoln decided it was "fit
and proper" that these blessings "should be solemnly, reverently and
gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American
people" and he invited "citizens in every part of the United States .
. . to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November . . . as a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth
in the Heavens."
But more than just offering prayers of Thanksgiving
to God, President Lincoln urged Americans to also "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, tranquillity and
Union."
President Lincoln’s intent was clear. Thanksgiving
was to be a national day of prayer, giving thanks to God for His blessings,
petitioning Him on behalf of those who mourn and suffer, and pleading with Him
for peace.
Today we tend to think of Thanksgiving as a harvest
festival, a gorge-fest filled with family, food and football – not necessarily
in that order. And while those things are wonderful to anticipate and enjoy, I
can’t help but think that we are missing something important if we forget that
Thanksgiving is, first and foremost, about prayer and giving thanks to God.
Especially in a year during which it isn’t always easy to be thankful.
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— © Joseph Walker
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