Thanks in Christian Life

Thanksgiving 2022

Civic (Secular) Holiday

From A.A. Milne: Author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books:

Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.

From Abraham Lincoln: After noting the suffering, strife, and sin of the Civil War, and especially after enumerating the gifts, bounties, and blessings of our country, Lincoln wrote in his Proclamation of Thanksgiving:

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one 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.

The full address may be found here: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/abraham-lincolns-proclamation-thanksgiving.

Religious Value

Revelation 19:6–8 (ESV):

“Halleluiah!

For the Lord our God

the Almighty reigns.

7  Let us rejoice and exult

and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

and his Bride has made herself ready;

8  it was granted her to clothe herself

with fine linen, bright and pure — .”