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Sunday School Children Come Together in Prayer with Celebration of Thanksgiving Feast

November 23, 2008

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Thanksgiving, A Time for Thankful Prayers

By Larry Price

Published November 23, 2008

The children of our church gathered today in Sunday School for their annual Thanksgiving Feast as they do every year at this time. Each child brought a favorite food to share and the assortment is always fascinating. The dishes can vary from mashed potatoes to potato chips, pizza to pop corn and everything in between, but the important thing is they pray together before the meal and give thanks to God. And that’s what Thanksgiving ought to be about—families and friends coming together to share in prayer the bounty of blessings that God gives us.

If you research Thanksgiving, you’ll find a lot of conflicting information on how it all started. Some sources do attribute the first Thanksgiving to an autumn harvest feast in 1621 between the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians, but harvest festivals actually date back much earlier in history.

The legacy of family and friends gathering to give thanks has survived centuries in this country. In 1789, George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving, asking Americans to give thanks for the founding of a nation, but Thanksgiving didn’t become a national holiday until the mid-19th century when Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, staged a letter-writing campaign to make it happen.  

President Lincoln, looking for ways to unite a nation torn by civil war, responded by issuing a Thanksgiving proclamation that set aside the last Thursday in November of 1863 for gratitude and thanksgiving.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt—trying to stimulate a depression ravaged economy—set off a two-year skirmish when he moved the holiday to the third Thursday, in an effort to give store owners an early start on holiday shopping. Detractors dubbed the relocated holiday "Franksgiving," and in 1941 Congress finally made the fourth Thursday in November the official day. So, in truth, it took 320 years to create the Thanksgiving Day we observe.

It’s a great holiday because families and friends gather in homes across America to give thanks and count their blessings, but I think in truth it has become a day of too much food, too much football, too many naps, and too few prayers at the table. I read that The Calorie Control Council, an industry group, reports Americans consume as much as 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving day. That’s twice as much as the FDA recommends for an entire day. Perhaps forgivable for one day because the holiday also raises our awareness of those who are not able to share in the bounty. Good, caring people work in food shelters and rescue missions to ensure that most Americans, who might go without the rest of the year, are included. Food pantries, like our own, raise money and collect food in an effort to fulfill the needs of many families the rest of the year. The hope is the spirit of Thanksgiving carries far beyond the one day. The children of our church learned that lesson as they brought non-perishable food items for needy families in our congregation. They also told their teachers about the blessings for which they are thankful and took time, before they enjoyed their meal, to create greeting cards for our troops overseas.

We should pray more and help others at Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were thankful they were alive. George Washington asked us to give thanks for the founding of a nation. Lincoln asked us to pray that a civil war would not destroy a nation. This year, retailers, much like Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, are probably hoping that the day after Thanksgiving—traditionally the largest shopping day of the year—will help put a dent in the recession. And we’re all probably hoping—and hopefully praying too—that we can find our way out of our current economic disaster.

What we’re thankful for has changed over the years, but the blessing that endures is family. At our family gathering, this will be first Thanksgiving in many years that my daughter will not be with us. She moved to Ohio this year and won’t be able to return for the holiday. We’ll have to wait until Christmas to see her.

I especially remember her first Thanksgiving 30 years ago. My daughter was born in April of that year and we celebrated our first Thanksgiving as parents and it was a blessing for which we were very thankful. It was also the year my father died, one month before Thanksgiving. I was conflicted with emotions of sadness and joy at the same time. Before he died, I saw my dad in the hospital. When I hugged him and said good-bye, not knowing for sure it would be for the last time, his body felt frail and his hands weak for someone so big. In contrast, my daughter, less than a year old, would wrap one of her tiny hands around one of my fingers and would squeeze it with amazing strength for someone so small. The blessing that carried me that Thanksgiving was taking comfort in the fact that my dad lived long enough to behold and hold his granddaughter. He was very proud of the granddaughter who would never get to know him. 

When you sit down at the table this year, what are the blessings for which you will be thankful? Will it be the food on the table, our jobs, good health, the blessings of family and friends? Whatever it is, Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to take the time to answer those questions. It’s also a great opportunity to thank God for being in our lives through the power of thankful prayer, just as our Sunday School children did today.    

[More from the Essays on Faith series]

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