On November 25th, American families celebrate Thanksgiving, but how did this custom of thanking God begin? And how did it influence the spiritual development of the United States?
Sailing a simple ship from England to the New World, many of the pilgrims on board died even before reaching America. They had suffered from both disease and hurricane-force winds.
After a horrendous journey of long weeks, the pilgrims disembarked, to begin a new and, according to some, miraculous chapter in the history of the world.
But at that time they did not know that being diverted by the wind to Plymouth, they reached the only place, of the thousands of miles of coast, where an indigenous tribe had leveled the land and planted corn, only to be wiped out by a terrible disease.
However, the pilgrims did not know what to do with that unknown harvest.
And then another miracle: not far away, staying with Chief Massaoit, was the only survivor of his tribe: Squanto, who had been captured by slavers who took him to Europe where he learned the English language and the Christian faith while his tribe perished. . Returning to his homeland, he found the pilgrims desperate.
“They lost half their people in the first winter. They didn’t know how to survive in the bleak cold of North America, “says Peter Marshall, a respected connoisseur of American history.
“Suddenly an American Indian who speaks perfect English arrives and offers to help them. They plant corn under his guidance and finally, in October the corn ripens. So they want to have a Thanksgiving celebration. They invite Chief Massaoit, who arrives with ninety warriors to the celebratory feast and enjoy three days of banquets, bow and arrow competitions, relay races, and other games. White people live with the Indians for the first time in the state of Massachusetts, ”says Marshall.
But while surviving was a great achievement, it cannot be compared to what these brave Puritan brethren came to contribute to America and the world.
Marshall says it was the first time since the Israelites at Sinai that God’s children had the opportunity to create a society based on his Word.
“They literally planted the gospel in the rocky soil of North America and created the foundation for American society as we know it today,” says Marshall.
Marshall points out that the key concepts of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have their roots in the early Pilgrims’ documents. And he adds that those who deny that America is a Christian nation forget how crucial their faith was to the Pilgrims.
