Thanksgiving Devotional...11/24/11

A Completely Christian Holiday

As a home schooling mom, I take breaks from our regular teaching to incorporate holiday lessons. As a Christian mom, I choose my lessons carefully. So, a few weeks ago, when Halloween was quickly approaching, I got out my book that explains the true roots of the festivities engaged in on October 31st. It wasn’t a new teaching. We’ve done it before, so it felt like the same ol’ same ol’ history lesson. My children had the attitude of, “Been there, done that…can’t we learn about something else?”

I decided to discuss the roots of other holidays. So, they learned that not only does Halloween traditions have pagan roots, but so do many Christmas and Easter traditions. Ok, this was a little bit more interesting to them…and disappointing as well. Christians don’t usually like to hear these things, but I’m not bothered. I like that the church was successful in changing the focus from pagan rituals to glorifying our Lord and Savior.

Why write about this on Thanksgiving? Because the next part of our discussion was a question I posed to them.

“Instead of becoming upset that many of our traditions at Christmas and Easter have pagan roots, why don’t you tell me if you can think of a holiday that’s been completely Christian right from its very first celebration with absolutely no pagan traditions?”

That’s right! The answer is Thanksgiving!

Though you won’t hear this taught in public schools, it is taught in Christian private and home schools. And even though it wasn’t declared a national holiday until many years after the first, that doesn’t change the fact that the small group of individuals who survived their previous brutal winter, celebrated their first successful harvest by giving thanks to their Creator, and they praised Him in the name of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

I’d like to point out that there have been numerous ancient cultures from all over the world with their own longstanding tradition of celebrating a successful harvest. In fact, a thorough study of all the roots of Halloween shows that even the Celts marked November 1st as (among other things) the end of harvest and so October 31 festivities was a harvest time celebration, though their traditions were pagan and many of them sad and evil. No scholar of ancient civilizations would deny this aspect of history, that all ancient societies had some form of a harvest celebration where they would bring homage to their god or gods. This is even true in the Old Testament, for the Israelites had several religious celebrations instituted by God Himself including one marking harvest called, Sukkot, and it included bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to God for providing for His people.

What makes Thanksgiving any different? Nothing, except the secular world has done their best to take God out of it and make it a day to remember how the pilgrims thanked the Indians. Wait! What? Oh, no, no, NO! It was not a day to mark and commemorate the help of their neighbors, but how God’s hand was in the whole process. Yes, their neighbors, the friendly natives of the land, befriended the settlement and helped them to learn how to plant successfully so they would have peace and security during their next winter. However, the celebration of their harvest focused on giving thanks to God for using the Indians for their benefit. These kind neighbors joined in with the Pilgrims in their celebrations of thanking God.

Now as I said, ancient cultures celebrated by not only a feast, but sacrifices to their god or gods…this includes the Israelites. However, our culture is not ancient, and the first harvest celebration occurred in the New Testament Era. That means animal sacrifices were no longer required to our God because Jesus already made the final sacrifice of His own life. So, the pilgrims did exactly what they were supposed to do. They gave instead a sacrifice of praise, and we call it Thanksgiving.

They began a new thing…a celebration of the harvest of God’s loving provision for His people by a gathering together for a feast in His honor, offering a sacrifice of praise because of their thankful hearts for what God had given them.

So does this mean that because Thanksgiving is a Christian holiday that only Christians should celebrate it? Absolutely not! That small group of survivors welcomed their non Christian neighbors to join them in their feast. Though the truth is, we know that at least of them was a Christian. His name was Squanto.

It is because of this Patuxet believer in Christ that the two people groups were able to join together and with God’s merciful blessing, they worked to make their settlement into a productive society of Christians in a new land.

So, gather together with family and friends, Christian and non Christian, enjoy your feast, help someone unfortunate, like the friendly neighbors of the pilgrims had done many years ago, so they can have a reason to celebrate and thank God, but do everything you can do to make sure everyone you’re with knows that Thanksgiving is about thanking God for His provision by giving to us. And don’t forget to offer up your sacrifice of praise with a thankful heart to the God who gives. In fact, he has given to the world more than many people realize.

He has given His only Son.

For God so loved the world

That He gave His one and only Son

that whoever believes in Him

shall not perish,
but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Amie Spruiell

11/23/2011