Many Paths: Thanksgiving Day is a time to reflect on God's goodness to us

Thanksgiving Day, An Individual and Collective Time to Reflect Upon God’s Goodness to Us”

To many Americans, Thanksgiving is just "Turkey Day" or time to celebrate Black Friday and the Christmas season.

Merriam-Webster defines Thanksgiving Day as a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness. My belief and trust lie with Merriam-Webster’s definition of Thanksgiving Day.

Here is the heart of my argument: Our nation has been the beneficiary of 247 years of divine goodness, not because of our goodness, but because of God’s goodness.

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The nation has come through the Civil War, two World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam conflict, the invasion of Panama, the medical students rescue in Granada and recently, the insurrection with the takeover of the U.S. Capitol.

Many of our fellow citizens believe that our geographical location saved us in World War I and WW II while others attribute our safety to mere luck, but America has never experienced a single bomb being dropped on its cities.

This fact alone demonstrates an outpouring of divine goodness. Historically speaking, Thanksgiving Day began as an annual day to pause and reflect upon one’s good fortune through the year.

Thanksgiving Day is also a time to rehearse undaunted optimism for divine favor in the coming new year. Let’s look deeper into that very first meeting of the Plymouth Colony settlers and the Wampanoag Tribe. What was it like for those Plymouth settlers who took a leap of faith and left their familiar places to sail across the ocean in search of a new life and religious freedom? How did they handle the journey into the unknowns of a vast ocean in tiny wood and wind driven ships?

Remember, they did not land on shores with paved streets, sidewalks, and civilization but instead arrived in an unfamiliar land; a hostile wilderness of which they were ill prepared and unsuited to survive in.

The settlers were helped by Samoset, a leader of the Abenaki people, and Tisquantum (better known as Squanto) who visited the settlers.

These are a few details of the early interaction of America’s indigenous people with the foreigners of the Plymouth Colony but only represents a small part of the factual record.

The story of Squanto, a member of the Wampanoag tribe, is much less innocent than the narrative that he assisted the pilgrims with teaching them how to grow crops and take advantage of North America’s bounties.

Six years before the Mayflower arrived in present-day Massachusetts, a slave-trader captured Squanto — Tisquantum — and a group of Native Americans.

With help from the Catholic Church, Tisquantum escaped and found his way to England where he learned English. He eventually returned to North America in 1619. While Tisquantum was overseas, New England’s Indigenous experienced a monumental death rate, with some communities losing nearly every tribal member to the decimating effects of European diseases.

Upon returning to North American and his village of Patuset, Tisquantum found only piles of bones of his fellow tribesmen killed by the plagues. Despite his personal tragedy of pain, and suffering, Tisquantum was willing to engage and assist the settlers of Plymouth Colony.

After several meetings, a formal agreement was made between the settlers and the native people, and in March 1621. The agreement between the Plymouth settlers and the Wampanoag people did not last.

However, the question that comes to mind when considering the historical record is this: What would have happened to the Plymouth Colony settlers if the Wampanoag people, and namely Tisquantum, called Squanto had not shown compassion, courage, and an unreserved commitment toward the newcomers?

Could the party have survived the harshness of the new land? The best answer is certainly not. In closing, the coming of Thanksgiving Day, 2023 in the Midwest is quite different and unique from that of the Plymouth Colony settlers in 1620.

The land has been tamed, the harvesting of crops is almost complete, and the skies above are inundated with numerous flocks of birds making their way to their wintering grounds. The fall colors are on full display, and the trees seemly set ablaze with the colors of fall.

They brim with yellow gold, red, and multiples shades of brown which merge in perfect harmony creating endless fall mosaics. Could their fall glory suggest that no matter how dark one’s personal situation and circumstances are now, there is awesome beauty, free of charge to all who stop and look.

Thanksgiving is truly the correct and proper response to divine goodness.

Andrew Jowers is a minister in Galesburg.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Many Paths: Thanksgiving is a time for reflection