The Meaning of Thanksgiving

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial entitled "The Desolate Wilderness," just as it has done for the last 47 Thanksgivings. It's really not an editorial. It's an excerpt from Nathaniel Morton, the record keeper of the Plymouth Colony, and William Bradford, its governor. Plymouth Colony was, of course, the woebegotten group of settlers in 1620 that gave Americans their tradition of Thanksgiving.

Since 1961 the Journal has published this excerpt on Thanksgiving along with its own commentary, "And the Fair Land," first written at the height of the Cold War and as relevant today as it was when John F. Kennedy faced off against Nikita Khrushchev. I hope this Thanksgiving you'll check it out online because it says so much about who we as Americans are and why we're this way.

"And the Fair Land" remains relevant through 5 decades because every Thanksgiving it speaks to the very character of America and Americans. We Americans like to think ourselves as the leaders of the developed world. But contrary to that, "And the Fair Land" points out that America "is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped."

It is this reaching beyond what we can grasp that has defined our national character. Think of the immigrants over centuries who left all they knew, never to see it again, for a chance to start over on these shores. That risk-taking gene has been passed down through centuries to us. Left behind were the non-risk takers. Americans are hard-wired to to work hard, aim high and achieve in ways some people can only dream about.

From Europe we get fine wine, crystal, and linens, products painstakingly developed by craftsmen over centuries. From America we get men on the moon and the Internet.

Those adventurers who set sail from Delftshaven in 1620 reached far beyond their grasp. A great and beneficent God protected them, nurtured them and shed his grace on them.

May we as a culture continue to reach beyond our grasp. And pray that God's grace continue to be with us.

Just thought you might like to know.