Giving thanks on Thanksgiving

  • Published
  • By Maj. (Chaplain) Kurt Taylor
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) --  Parades, football, and lots of food are usually what we associate with Thanksgiving. As always, we Americans have come up with our own, unique way of celebrating a holiday. 

For most of us, there also is the vague picture of how it all began, back in the early days of pilgrims and settlers. The earliest Thanksgiving is usually associated with the Plymouth Colony in 1621. For a calloused group of settlers who were used to hardships and drought, a day was observed after the harvest, giving thanks for the food they had, the Native American help they had received and the graciousness of God. 

In the decades that followed, unofficial Thanksgiving observances were held in many of the early colonies until the time of the Revolutionary War. Even then, when the infant nation was striving to survive, the Continental Congress urged the states to set aside a day for the people to give thanks. 

It was President Abraham Lincoln who officially established what we now know as Thanksgiving Day. In part, he wrote: "The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed ... we are prone to forget the source from which they come. 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 with that, we have Thanksgiving.  As it will be for Christmas, many of us will probably remember for the rest of our lives that one Thanksgiving we spent in the Kyrgyz Republic. 

Perhaps we may even wish to translate the weightier things on our minds into reasons to celebrate most fervently this year. 

We miss our families. How thankful we are to have families we miss. We miss our homes. How thankful we are for homes to which we will return. We are concerned about the war. How thankful we are for a nation dedicated to freedom and the end of terrorism. We feel stress from our jobs. How thankful we are for jobs that matter on a global scale. 

We have much for which to be thankful. When we are, it will be quite American to say so, and demonstrate it this year.

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