With the Thanksgiving holiday less than a week away, my thoughts over the past several days have been on our Pilgrim brethren who are the nexus of this celebration. They made their famous voyage to the “New World” aboard the ship Mayflower in 1620 and founded Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts. They fled their native England to escape religious prosecution for their rejection of the government establishment of the Church of England by King Henry VIII.
They were called for a return to a simpler faith and less structured forms of worship. As innocuous as that might seem to us today in the United States, any movement that advocated separation from the tenants of the Church of England was considered very dangerous in the 1600s. In fact, it was illegal to be part of any church other than the Church of England.
Initially these separatists fled England and settled in the Netherlands, but after little over a decade there, the congregation decided to leave Holland and establish a colony in the Americas. They endured many hardships both in their voyage over and then in establishing their new home and lives amid this unfamiliar and harsh new world. Their ability to endure and triumph through great hardship, deprivation and suffering they credited not to the hard work of their own hands, but to those of their Creator. In the fall of 1621, they marked their first harvest with a three-day celebration, joined by about 90 Native Americans with whom they had forged a treaty earlier that year, this gathering of feasting and entertainment became the basis for the story of the First Thanksgiving.
While certainly most of us this Thanksgiving will gather under infinitely better circumstances, hopefully we too will acknowledge, credit, and give thanks to that same Creator as the source of all of our blessings and our hope for eternal salvation.
So, in confident recognition of our belief in a beneficent and loving Provider, even amid our challenges, sufferings and angst, I want to share with you this week a poem written by Henry van Dyke that I find magnificently defines why we should all humbly give thanks for our great nation, our freedom to disagree, and, most importantly, our unfettered ability to worship and seek succor and guidance from our Creator; not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day.
O Maker of the Mighty Deep,
Whereon our vessels fare,
Above our life’s adventure keep
Thy faithful watch and care.
In Thee we trust, whate’er befall;
Thy sea is great, our boats are small.
We know not where the secret tides
Will help us or delay,
Nor where the lurking tempest hides,
Nor where the fogs are gray.
We trust in Thee, whate’re befall;
Thy sea is great, our boats are small.
When outward bound we boldly sail
And leave the shore,
Let not our hearts of courage fail,
Until the voyage is o’er.
We trust in Thee, whate’re befall;
Thy sea is great, our boats are small.
When homeward bound, we gladly turn,
Oh! Bring us safely there,
Where harbor-lights of friendship burn
And peace is in the air.
We trust in Thee, whate’er befall;
Thy sea is great, our boats are small.
Beyond the circle of the sea,
When voyaging is past,
We seek our final port in Thee;
Oh! Bring us home at last.
In Thee we trust, whate’re befall;
Thy sea is great, our boats are small.
May AWE-full blessings fill your heart in praise and glory of their source this Thanksgiving!
William J. “Bill” Bacqué