This is regarding the Nov. 22 editorial “Merry . . . hey! Wait a minute!” I completely agree with the sentiment of the editorial, lamenting the fact that Thanksgiving is becoming lost in the holiday whirlwind between Halloween and Christmas. But I am disappointed that the author chose to portray Thanksgiving as a wholly secular holiday focused on food, family, friends and football.
The author waxes eloquently about a basic human need to give thanks but offers only luck, hard work, circumstance or serendipity as the source of all the blessings of life that one is supposed to be thankful for. Aside from hard work, these basically boil down to random chance, a force more worthy of curses than thanks to many.
To whom or to what, then, are we to give thanks? One need look no further than the following excerpt from President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation to understand both the source of our blessings and the proper object of our thanksgiving:
” . . . No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. 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 next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens . . . “
Is it regrettable that Thanksgiving Day is getting crowded out of our calendars? Absolutely. What is worse, however, is that God is being quietly squeezed from our lives, intentionally deleted from our history books and effectively excised from our collective heart and conscience.
I am deeply grateful for this country and the tremendous freedom she provides to each one of her citizens, just as I am thankful for my family, my friends and my circumstances. My thanks, however, are (humbly) directed to Almighty God and not (blindly) to the fickle forces of fate or (arrogantly) to my own abilities and work ethic.
God was sufficient for Abraham and for Abraham Lincoln, and he is sufficient for me.
