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"My Five" Psalm 126 Had you been a Pilgrim on that first Thanksgiving in 1621, would you have given thanks? Would you have assessed your life, balancing out whether the good outweighed the bad in your life, and found enough to be thankful for? Consider what they had been through: Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe researched the conditions for the first Pilgrims: “They set sail for a new land on an endeavor so hazardous that published guides advised travelers to first, make their Will before departure. “The crossing was very rough and the Mayflower was blown off course making landfall in the wilds of Massachusetts rather than the settlements in Virginia. They made their new home - Plymouth, they called it – just before the arrival of a harsh winter. “The storms were frightful. Shelter was rudimentary. There was little food. Within weeks, nearly all the settlers were sick. “Governor William Bradford wrote of that winter: 'That which was most sad and lamentable was that in two or three months' time, half of the company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvy and other diseases.... There died sometimes two or three of a day.’ ” When their supplies ran out, their sponsors back in England would not replenish them. Legend has it, near the end of the winter, they were rationing out only five kernels of corn per person per day! Suppose you had been there—the year was 1621, more than half of your friends and family have died from hunger and illness. Can you imagine? Would you have been able to find anything for which to be grateful? True gratitude isn't familiar territory for most of us. Come Thanksgiving, we might give a passing praise for a big turkey dinner, but too soon our attention will be turned toward the television ball games, or the after-Thanksgiving bargains. In fact, when Thanksgiving is more anticipated for the circulars that arrive with promises of slashed sale prices in the early hours of Friday morning than it is as a day to reflect and give thanks for God’s blessings, we are more impoverished than ever. Dennis Prager, author of Happiness is a Serious Problem writes, ''There is a `secret to happiness, and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.'' I think that is why the Bible is filled with references reminding God’s people to give thanks to God. “It is good to give the Lord Thanks,” the psalmist sings. Why? Because God needs our gratitude? No: because we need it. Giving thanks brings happiness. Bass Mitchell tells of a time he spent Thanksgiving with a new friend from school named Kenny. He accompanied his friend and friend’s family into the dining room. The table was set - plates and glasses but no food. Not even a piece of bread. Bass noticed however, that beside each empty plate was a miniature pile of corn, five kernels to be exact. The young boy thought he was going to starve. Then Kenny’s dad nodded to his youngest daughter, and she asked sincerely, "Father, why are there five pieces of corn beside our plates?" Kenny’s father told how the Pilgrim fathers and mothers faced many hardships when they came to America seeking freedom to worship God as they felt they should. One of those was hunger. The winter they endured was so bad that they had only five pieces of corn per person each day to eat. But God delivered them through that harsh winter, and the next spring, with the help of their Indian friends, they planted crops that led to a bountiful harvest and hopes of surviving in this New World. So they raised their voices in thanksgiving, inviting their new Indian friends to a great banquet - the first Thanksgiving. Then he picked up a piece of corn and looked around at his family and told them and God just how thankful he was for them. He laid the piece of corn on the other side of the plate. Then Kenny's mother took a kernel of corn and named something she was thankful for...and they went around the table until they got to Kenny...and Kenny holding his tiny piece of corn, looked at his invited friend, Bass and told how thankful he was for me, and what a good friend Bass I had been to him, for he didn't think he would make any friends when he moved here. Then it was Bass’ turn. He picked up a piece of corn and then shared thanks for Kenny and his whole strange family. The family continued to go around the table until everyone had given thanks for five blessings, one for each piece of corn... after that, the family headed out to the kitchen and there on the counter lay all the food, the Turkey and all the trimmings. Isn't God good to us? Here’s my five today: (each one to be expanded)
The Apostle Paul wrote: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.” We have for each of you a pouch with five kernels of corn in it. You are encouraged to use them at your Thanksgiving celebration to share the things for which you are most thankful this year. Don't take the gifts in your life for granted. Remember - as the Pilgrims remembered - that we are impoverished without each other, and without God. Whoever and wherever you are this Thanksgiving, determine whether the good in your life outweighs the bad. If that doesn't deserve our gratitude, what does?
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