Attitude of Gratitude
The United States has emphasized gratefulness to God with a national remembrance since 1789, the year after the US Constitution was adopted. President George Washington, at the urging of Congress, proclaimed Thursday, November 26
“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.”
While Americans are not the only people to celebrate Thanksgiving in October or November, our observance is deeply rooted in an attitude of gratitude toward God.
Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 is an example. Although the nation was reeling in the grips of a devastating Civil War, Lincoln thought it “fit and proper” for the nation that the blessings of God “should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.” Further, Lincoln continued,
“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.”
Amen! This sounds like a prayer we Americans in 2024 could heartily enjoin to one another.
The transcript of Lincoln’s memorable Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 is here. The transcript of Washington’s 1789 proclamation is here.
Let us joyfully, gratefully, and solemnly acknowledge “the gracious gifts of the Most High God.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
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