Thanksgiving - Don't Forget To Feed Humanity
When Thanksgiving comes around Turkey ads, cranberry jam, plus sweet potato fill the air. Flyers, newspaper ads, and T.V. spots all advertise the Thanksgiving spirit. Yes, this is a time for the sale of the year. Celebrate the day by shopping until you drop seems to be the message. The political economists tell us that shopping on Thanksgiving will be the greatest gift to the country because it will help the economy and put faith back into our system.
For the life of me I cannot understand what they are talking about. As I remember Thanksgiving was a time for awakening our spiritual values not the economy!
Our great countrys leaders designated this time to appreciate Gods miracles. For even though the early settlers of the land were considered conquerors, the Indians found kindness in their hearts, they taught the settlers how to endure the harsh winters by providing food and poultry. This was a miracle that initiated Thanksgiving.
We can find this sentiment in the words of our great president Lincoln
On Oct. 3, 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the Proclamation of Thanksgiving. In it he stated, They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, 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.
Lincoln warns us against self-deception. In a proclamation appointing a national fast day on March 30, 1863 he proclaimed the following:
We 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 selfsufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
Humanistic theorists postulate that many people have not learned to accept personal responsibility for all their actions and are given to pervasiveness of self-deception. Good deeds are sometimes forgotten. Repression, the basic defense for not returning the good that was done for you sets in. It becomes a type of amnesia. You really dont owe anybody anything. Americans suffer from this strange malady. We have forgotten to be thankful for our freedom and individuality. Remember, we are a country that forms a great mosaic of nationalities and we take it for granted.
As the war continues in Afghanistan brave men and women are put in life and death situations. They do this to insure our freedom and the safety of the world. They are trying to prevent the spread of terrorism that caused the tragic losses of September 11th. So this year when Thanksgiving comes around why not invite a servicemans family or a homeless person to your meal, or better yet, instead of stuffing yourself with turkey send humanitarian aid to those in need. Make this Thanksgiving a special one by sharing and stressing the spirit of humanity.
Whether Christian, Jewish, or Islamic, we must remember we are all children of Abraham who was known for his kindness and tolerance. Lets give praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens in our homes.
A happy Thanksgiving to you all.