Giving Thanks

(Our FIRST Turkey!!)

I used to think American Thanksgiving wasn't really too big of a deal. I mean, everyone ELSE thinks it's huge (it's quite literally, the biggest holiday beside Christmas here), but since we're the "imports" Thanksgiving felt over-rated. It seemed to be the day that everyone else celebrated their families, and invited us along, since we had none here. And then would commence the feast and celebration, while I would generally feel isolated, kind of alone and I'll admit, a slight bit bitter and skeptical about the "biggy-deal-ness" of this holiday.

I looked up the history of American thanksgiving the other day, since, now that we live (probably pretty much for good) I should really figure out what the hullabaloo is:

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(the following taken from :http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/feast/)
The English colonists we call Pilgrims celebrated days of thanksgiving as part of their religion. But these were days of prayer, not days of feasting. Our national holiday really stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest.
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So, the early Pilgrims who came over from England, enduring hardship and who knows what, finally made it through the winter, toiled through spring and summer with their hands and hearts and harvested in the fall, ~celebrating what God had given them, and all they went through, having come out on the other side. They probably were so thankful, not just for harvest, but for all the answered prayers along the way, that God truly was with them.

It occured to me just the other day, when I was writing the last blog about our anniversary of coming here to America, that I don't think it's coincidence now, that we came at Thanksgiving. There is no way we could have known (or at least, it never occured to me) that when we began driving making our own Pilgrimage, that we would arrive here at such an interesting time of the year, when American's celebrate Thanksgiving, and teach their children about the first Pilgrims and being thankful for God's provisions.

I think I've had a divine revelation, that now brings Thanksgiving into light for me. Having been here now 3 years, I too, can look back on the trials and the provisions of God and be ever so thankful for everything we've been brough through so far, and whatever lies ahead. It's this new and special meaning that does draw me to celebrating.

So, I bought a turkey yesterday, my first EVER. It's in the oven right now (hopefully turning out!) I finally feel like making a big deal about this holiday here, because for Jay and I it is, literally 2 Pilgrams giving thanks to God, for his harvest -- and looking forward even further, to what he will do in our lives.

Till Next blog -- and Happy Thanksgiving!
love, a.