It's not about the food or the pilgrims...

Today is the day which has been set aside by our nation to give thanks.  Organized declarations of thanksgiving have been a part of cultures for thousands of years.  So, we gather to give thanks to God, not to celebrate a simple pilgrim meal that happened long ago. 

Although not the first leader to do so, Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, made a proclamation of Thanksgiving in 1863.  After describing the "bounties" of harvest, new frontiers, and natural resources of a country still struggling in a time of war, the President goes on to say,
[These] 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 dwells 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.
With all that is going on in our world today, these words seems so relevant and serve as a great reminder for us to focus on this: let our Thanksgiving not be so much about food, football, or even family but instead be in praise to the Father for His mercy and kindness as we ask Him for His forgiveness, healing, and restoration of our souls, our bodies, and our land.

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