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• Thanksgiving Day is a peculiarly national holiday.
• Millions of U.S. citizens abroad are self-consciously American on Thanksgiving.

• Thanksgiving celebrates that day in 1622 when Governor William Bradford summoned the survivors of the Mayflower to praise God for their first harvest.
  -Hebrews 11:16b
• Other nations also give thanks.
• For most of us, this is an anachronism.
• Harvest has little to do with our common life these days, and yet, we sing about it still.

• Thanksgiving is a celebration of those who laid the foundations of a new nation.
-Illustration: We sing “Land of the Pilgrim’s pride … Let freedom ring!”
• Pilgrims of all nationalities sought liberty to act, think, and worship in their own way.
• Two strains of immigrants came: those who wanted a better life, and those who came for reasons of faith, not fortune.

• The pilgrim consciousness disappeared from the national life for a long period of time.
• It was 240 years after the first Pilgrim that Thanksgiving was reinstated.
  -Illustration: “All nations grow odious in prosperity.”
• It took the tragedy of the Civil War and Lincoln’s scarred spirit to recall the pilgrim heritage.
  -Illustration: Lincoln’s proclamation said, “We have forgotten the gracious Hand….”
• Lincoln sought to instill in a divided national heart its former unity.
• On October 3, 1863, Lincoln issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation.

• It is practically impossible to over-idealize the Pilgrims.
• Within a few short years, they were able to establish universities, organize hospitals, print books, and accomplish any number of notable and remarkable things.
• Thanksgiving is a time to remember the sacrifices and accomplishments of those who have gone before us.
• Now it is time to thank God for those things he has allowed us to accomplish.
  -Illustration: Let us celebrate in the spirit of the hymn writer, who said: “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above. Then thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord, for all his love!”.