Cal Thomas: Restoring Thanksgiving

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, November 27th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, on this Thanksgiving Day, WORLD commentator Cal Thomas suggests setting aside some time to reflect.

CAL THOMAS: There once was a time—and I still remember it—when most of the Christmas rush began after Thanksgiving. Now we have Black Friday beginning in some TV ads before Halloween. Thanksgiving has taken a back seat to the commercialism of Christmas. It is now mostly a day of stuffing ourselves with high-calorie food.

While the early settlers and pilgrims were known for thanking God for His blessings, it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln became president that the day became an officially recognized occasion. In his proclamation declaring the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving, Lincoln said this about the blessings Americans had received:

“To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.”

The proclamation was issued after the Battle of Gettysburg, a bloody conflict in the Civil War…a war which was still far from over. If a nation in the midst of such a great internal struggle could find things to be thankful for, what about us? In our rush to consume, do we any longer regard God as the source of our undeserved blessings?

Something even more profound came later in the proclamation. Speaking to his fellow citizens, Lincoln wrote:

“I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience.”

When was the last time you heard a national leader recommend penitence? The Scriptures are pretty clear…nothing gets God’s attention quite like repentance. It is then His mercy flows.

I’m not exactly sure how God will respond as His people pray…seeking His forgiveness for our national sins. But I do know that it is an appropriate attitude as we gather, and a long-standing tradition to reintroduce around our Thanksgiving table.

God once said for the sake of ten righteous people He would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Like the people in those ancient cities, we have many sins for which we should repent. Perhaps a heaping serving of humble pie should be on today’s Thanksgiving menu.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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