Into His Gates

In 1620, the Pilgrims landed in this great country; 243 years later, our president thought it fitting to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving, even in the midst of the Civil War.

"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 self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens . . . 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." ~ Abraham Lincoln

144 years later we, with the rest of the United States, stop to celebrate the day dedicated to giving thanks to our Lord for his bounty. It is rather humbling to realize that for 387 years family after family, generation after generation has set aside time to gather and give thanks for the blessings of the Lord. May we never fail to pass our thankfulness on to ensuing generations, and may we model it daily.

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." Psalm 100:4,5