Thanksgiving Day

A Puritan Holiday

On August 5th, 1620, two ships carrying puritan families, the Mayflower and the Speedwell set sail from Southampton, England, for the new world.  Most of the passengers on the Mayflower were a single congregation that left Nottingham in 1607 for Holland fleeing the imposition of English Prayer Book by Elizabeth. 

Yet after they set sail, the Speedwell began to leak and the ships were forced to stop in Dartmouth, England. On August 21st, they left again, only to be forced to return home for England, this time to Plymouth. The Speedwell was considered not sea worthy and the hopes of those on board were dashed.  Some managed to squeeze into the Mayflower so that it was carrying 102 souls. On September 6th, the Mayflower launched from Plymouth, this time alone.

Crossing the Atlantic two and a half months, enduring bad weather, sickness and hunger, they landed on Cape Cod, November 21st.  Eventually they moved inland for a more secure settlement in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, on December 21st.

Enduring many hardships, seeking to find a place where they could not only worship as the Bible prescribed, they desired to establish a Christian commonwealth where the Gospel could go out to the nations.  William Bradford, the congregation’s pastor and first governor of the colony wrote:  “They saw themselves as “stepping stones unto others…laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way therunto, for the propagating & advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world.”

 A year later, with the help of local Native Americans, to whom they had shared the gospel, the Pilgrims celebrated a good harvest with the first Thanksgiving.  They maintained the puritan conviction that God in his good providence had provided for them, even though the first winter over half of them died.   In the midst of hardship and in the pursuit of godly aims, the first Thanksgiving was a feast of grateful hearts for the blessings of God.  Of course, most Americans have forgotten this heritage.   May you and your family recapture this sort of worship and gratitude that is rooted in God’s provisions even when things are hard and difficult, but persevere in the godly pursuit of Christ’s kingdom in the midst of this world.     

Psalm 79:13 (ESV) 

    But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.