Thanksgiving origins

When people think about the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday, they typically think of North American settlement, the pilgrims and the Mayflower. Today in church, I learned a little bit more about the true origins of our national Thanksgiving holiday. Every fourth Thursday in November, we celebrate a day of thanksgiving and prayer (and often, an abundance of delicious food) because some of our nation's greatest leaders and presidents found it fitting for Americans to collectively thank our Savior for the blessings, protection and favor he has so bountifully given our nation.

The following proclamation was issued by President George Washington in 1789:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore 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, which we experienced 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 enabled 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 hath been pleased to confer upon us.

The following is an excerpt from President Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation in 1863:

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And 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, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

Thanksgiving has been observed annually since Lincoln's proclamation in 1863. 

In celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday this Thursday, I hope you take time to remember these proclamations of our Founding Fathers and greatest leaders. These men faced some of our nation's greatest struggles, in settlement, wars and development, but still understood the importance of thanking God for his faithfulness and hand of protection through it all. Today in America, more than ever, we have so much to be thankful for and to pray for; the Thanksgiving holiday is a time to do just that. Unfortunately, like the majority of Christian holidays in America, I think Thanksgiving has become a very secular cultural tradition, but the day was always intended to be a day of thanks to God.