The real history of Thanksgiving goes way back Moses. And to the chosen people that Moses led out of Egypt who were mostly a thankless lot. For 40 years God led them through the wilderness. He shielded them from the desert sun by day and illumined their camp by night. The Lord rained bread from heaven, not once, but six days a week and ordained a holiday on the seventh.  

He split open rocks and poured out rivers of water in the desert.

He came down on Sinai in thunder and lightning and gave them His law through His word. God gave them a wise and selfless leader, a man who knew Him face to face. And in the light of such overwhelming revelation, care, blessings, and mercy, His people grumbled.

They grumbled about the lack of food and water; about the dangers of the Promised Land, even about getting “heavenly bread” a little too often! They grumbled against the leaders God had given them. They grumbled against the judgment of God and mistook it for magic. And they all died in the wilderness—all but Joshua and Caleb. I guess the Promised Land had no room for thankless whiners.

The wilderness is often a place of purging. It flushes our hearts out into the open. It reveals us for who we are. Deprivation, weariness, pain, fear… all these trials and more work to strip away our human pride.

Often, superficial civility, a “churchy” veneer of virtue, and the pretence of godliness, all work to cover and cloak our thankless spirits. And so, the real history of Thanksgiving looks at how we react when our “stuff” gets taken away. Job got a dose of this.

“Touch all he has,” Satan said of Job, “and he will curse You to Your face” (Job 1:11). Sometimes God does take it all away. Sometimes He takes little bits away—our comfort, our luxuries, our conveniences. He tests us and tries us in our own personal wilderness, so we can know our own hearts better. In hard times, the thankless heart chafes and rebels, but the grateful heart presses closer to God. 

And, in the end, the godly man or woman says with Job, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

The godly are thankful because they see the hand of God, the mercy and provision of their Lord, even in their trials and tribulations. They see the real history of thanksgiving with respect to God furnishing a table in the wilderness, how He rains manna from heaven and brings water from the rock. 

The godly learn in the midst of suffering that man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Deut. 8:3). This, of course, is a matter of faith. Those who trust God will thank God, even in the wilderness… and even when it hurts.

Our Nation’s Most Remembered Thanksgiving Celebration

The Pilgrims, Puritans, and Reformers are almost always portrayed as obsessive killjoys and miserable downers. There’s very little truth in that image. Joy wasn’t an afterthought for our Pilgrim forefathers. For them, joy stood at the beginning, in the center and at the end. God seemed to be a joy for them, even when they were hungry. That same joy expressed itself in thankfulness. For the Pilgrims, a day of rejoicing is necessarily a day of thanksgiving. And throughout Scripture, that rejoicing means feasting, fellowship, and worship. 

The Pilgrims were deeply committed Christians who had braved an ocean and a wilderness to seek and serve God. When they rejoiced together, it would not—could not—be anything other than a time of thanksgiving to their Lord and Savior. Yes, the Pilgrims gave thanks to God, and so should all of us. This is how their hearts demonstrated the real history of Thanksgiving.

The Only Way Back

Today, our nation stands at the brink, in sore need of that very same pilgrim spirit. But what’s the best way back home? Well, any journey begins with a confident first step and I think America returns by rekindling a spirit of repentance and thankfulness... one person at a time.

This sounds easy. We all know better. When things go wrong as they often do, my first response is usually to experience a deep sense of frustration and then muscle up a kind of “reactive lunge” to try to compensate for the gap. Frankly, I just try harder. Rarely do I immediately stop and thank God for previous deliverances. Rarely do I stop and smile knowing that not only does He have my back… but what I see as trouble he sees as deliverance and blessing.

He’s always present. Always closer to me than I am to myself. Every second helping me. It’s me that forgets God when adversity tracks me down. This, despite the fact that my biggest victories have always come on the heels of failure. 

Thankfulness, not only for the good things we still have but also for the adversity and the troubled times we now face and will face ahead. Are you willing to say with David in Psalm 13: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

Reliving The Real History Of Thanksgiving

The Real History Of Thanksgiving Is About Seeing His Abundant Grace

Let’s face it, the world thinks it’s entitled. As Christians, we know God doesn’t owe us anything (quite the opposite, in fact). Yet, because of His abundant grace, He loves us. And the truth is... that’s a lot to be thankful for. In fact, it’s everything. When we go through hard times and find ourselves wandering around in our own personal wilderness, we have an opportunity to pause and give thanks for what God is doing in our lives. 

If we are struggling, that means God is using us in His grand vision. He has a greater good in mind. And, like the Pilgrims, we should remember that joy is found even in the hard times. During our moments of pain and suffering, our response should be cries of thanksgiving, if for no other reason than because God loves us.

The Land Of Bradford And Brewster

If you would like to see where the Pilgrims really lived in England, I spent a day last year walking where the pilgrims walked. My host was Sue Allan. Sue was in the movie Monumental with Kirk Cameron. Join Sue and I as we walk through the land of Brewster and Bradford discussing the real history of Thanksgiving which began well before the celebrated American Holiday. 

My son Nick filmed the event with a hand camera and did a great job under the conditions. It’s not Monumental and I’m hardly Kirk Cameron, but it’s pretty neat to see where they spent their time. Sue and I even walked on the Old North Road as it runs though the village of Scrooby. Most historians claim the road stops there. It doesn’t. Sue reveals the secret.

Click here to watch it.

May God bless you richly today on this Thanksgiving as you celebrate in joy what you have been so graciously given.