Happy Thanksgiving!

"We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing..."

In 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation, declaring, in part, that

I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

This was the first official Thanksgiving of the United States, and it is part of what makes America America. We have, as a people, since the very beginning of our existence as a nation, taken a day to give thanks, to recognize and acknowledge our debt of gratitude to God.

Happy Thanksgiving! to everyone out there. I hope you travel well and safely, overeat but not too much, and enjoy the "blessings of Liberty" to which we are inheritants...




Psalm 100:
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.