In the mid 1980s when our younger son, Joel, was in public school in the second grade, one day around Thanksgiving he brought home a paper he copied from what the teacher wrote on the board.  Here is what that second grade teacher wrote to be copied by her impressionable class:  

“The Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving to thank the Indians for all their help.” 

Did you catch that?  Here’s an elementary school teacher instructing seven-year-olds about the meaning of this special day – and she says it’s to commemorate English Separatists thanking Native Americans for their help! 

Now, I don’t know how intentional this little act of revisionism was.  Maybe this teacher felt intimidated to tell those kids the truth.  But historical revisionism is never right and it must never be condoned, whether it’s from an Iranian president who says the Holocaust is fiction or a sweet young schoolteacher who reduces Thanksgiving to Indian Appreciation Day.  Facts are facts.  Truth is truth.  And intentional untruths are lies.
 
Let’s get it straight – and tell it straight.  Thanksgiving isn’t first about turkeys or football or even Pilgrims or Native Americans.  It’s a day to pause as a nation and thank Almighty God for His mercy and goodness to us.  Here’s a brief look at the origins of this uniquely American holiday. 

God brought Squanto, a Native American who understood the Pilgrims’ language, to help them survive the harsh conditions of the New World.  Of particular importance, Squanto taught the newcomers how to plant the winter staple crop of corn.  The Pilgrims shared the Gospel with their new friend.  Before his death in 1621, Squanto asked them to pray for him that he would be with God in heaven.  

In gratitude to God for saving the threatened harvest that year, Pilgrims invited other Native Americans to share in a feast of thanksgiving to Almighty God.  The record is clear that on that first observance of Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and Native Americans together gave thanks to God for the long, gentle rain that broke a severe drought and saved the harvest – and their lives.

Shortly after our nation’s independence had been won, Congress approved the Bill of Rights in 1789, attaching a “recommended day of public thanksgiving and prayer.”  President George Washington responded with the first presidential proclamation in the United States, declaring November 26, 1789, as the first national day of prayer and thanksgiving. 

In his proclamation, Washington declared, “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 . . . 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 . . . And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions . . .”

Seventy-five years later as the bitter years of the Civil War came to a close, President Abraham Lincoln established the last Thursday in November as a day to acknowledge “the gracious gifts of the Most High God.”  Every succeeding president did the same until 1941 when Congress officially made Thanksgiving a national holiday.

What I have shared with you is an indisputable part of our national record and history.  Let me encourage you to share this with your children and grandchildren this Thanksgiving.

Six times in the Bible these same words of admonition are given.  It’s as if the divine Author of Scripture wanted to be sure we wouldn’t forget: “O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever.”

In this season of Thanksgiving I want to give thanks for the life of Mrs. Gertrude Nathan.

She was the lady who was teaching in Vacation Bible School on June 12, 1953 when I first opened my heart in faith to Jesus Christ at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I will forever be grateful for that day and for her.

A few years back I visited the very church building where, a half century earlier, I first opened my heart to Christ. In the afternoon when nobody else was there, I walked back down to the front of the auditorium. I knelt down at the spot where I first met the Lord. I just began to worship Him and thank Him again for so great salvation. Then, at that sacred place for me, I made a fresh commitment that I would spend the rest of my life getting what happened to me there to other people.
If it’s not an actual place, I pray there is a place in your heart you will go back to today, where you will let a fresh sense of gratitude wash over you that someone got the Gospel to you. Paul taught in the first chapter of Romans that the first step away from God and toward degeneracy is ingratitude. “When they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful” (Rom. 1:21).

I’m inviting you to do two things that will brighten this Thanksgiving season for you. First, go back and glorify God. If you can, make a literal trip back to the place where you committed your life to Christ. Thank God for saving you, and rededicate your life to Him and His purposes.

Second, go back and thank God’s vessel. Who did God use to get the Gospel to you? If they’re still living, do all you can to find them and thank them for sharing life’s greatest treasure with you. And while you’re at it, send a few emails and make a few calls of appreciation to faithful Sunday school teachers, parents, siblings, and friends.

There’s a phrase we don’t hear much anymore: personal evangelism. The reason we don’t hear about personal evangelism very often is that there aren’t enough personal evangelists. The great Southern Baptist missionary, Lottie Moon, wrote, “There could be no greater joy than that of winning souls.” This is an exceedingly gratifying experience that, regrettably, most believers have never known.
We’re entering the time of year when we’re most apt to be with relatives and friends we seldom see. Let God use you throughout the holidays to point people to Jesus. Just urge them to behold God’s sacrificial Lamb. “As many as look will live” (Num. 21:8-9; Jn. 3:14-15).

Thank you, Lord, for Gertrude Nathan – and for a host of faithful Sunday school teachers, VBS teachers, and parents who point others to Jesus.