I had a brief acting career that began in the fourth grade when I performed in our school's Thanksgiving pageant. Mrs. Colvin gave me the coveted part of Captain Miles Standish. All the boys wanted the part because then he would get to carry a real musket. We practiced for weeks, and I enjoyed being the envy of every guy in class although the musket was about twice my size and I could barely carry it. I also had the first line in the play. When the curtain went up, I was to be in the center of the stage and say the first line that would set the theme of the play. I was glad and proud that Mrs. Colvin had given me this part and I was not about to disappoint her. Well, the curtain went up and that's when everything began to go wrong.
During practice when the curtain went up, I saw an empty gym, but now there were faces with eyes looking intently at me. The worst case of stage fright came over me. I began to sweat and my mouth went dry. My hands were shaking were so much that I was about to drop the musket and my big black hat began to fall over my eyes. All I wanted to do was to get off the stage and so I quickly blurted out my line and instead of saying, “Welcome friends, come and eat; we have prepared a feast for you.” I said, “Welcome friends, come and eat; we have prepared our feet for you.”
Luckily, no one laughed; they took pity on me and they just looked at each other as if I was crazy. My acting career went on a downslide after that blunder. Mrs. Colvin lost confidence in me. And for the Christmas play, she gave me the part of a silent shepherd.
Looking back, I learned a few lessons about public speaking and also the intended lesson about the history of our celebration of Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims went through tough times after they landed on the shores of what is now Massachusetts in 1620. About half of the pilgrims died during the first winter. Squanto, an Indian from The Wampanoag (Wam pa No ag) nation, found them living in dirt covered shelters and with a shortage of food.
The Pilgrims must have been surprised that Squanto spoke English so well. He had learned English years earlier from a friendly explorer, John Weymouth. Squanto stayed with the Pilgrims for a few months and taught them how to build wigwams for shelters and how to cultivate corn and other vegetables. By the time the fall arrived, they were in much better condition and knew more about surviving in the new land.
The Pilgrims had observed Thanksgiving feasts in November as religious obligations in England for many years before coming to the New World. The Indians held six Thanksgiving festivals every year. In late fall when the Indians had their fifth thanksgiving giving thanks for the food they had grown, this is when the Pilgrims and the Indians sat down together for the “first Thanksgiving.”
As you can see, I put the “first Thanksgiving” in italics because that really was not the first celebration of giving thanks. As we have seen, the Pilgrims and the Indians already had the tradition of taking time to give thanks for all their blessings. This Thanksgiving that we see in school plays was only the first time the Pilgrims and the Indians had celebrated together.
We have to go back thousands of years to find the true first Thanksgiving. This first Thanksgiving can be found in Deuteronomy where we see the Israelites and when they celebrated the very first Thanksgiving. (You can read the account in your bibles Deut.26:1-11) God had freed the Israelites from the bondage of slavery. They have left Egypt and are now to give God thanks for all His goodness.
But I don't think we should stop our history lesson about giving thanks here. There is more to learn about what giving true thanks is. You see, the story of the Pilgrims and the Indians did not turn out so well. For three days the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims feasted together. It was a special time of friendship between two very different groups of people, but is was not to stay this way. More English people came to America, and they were not in need of the help from the Indians like those first Pilgrims. They displayed an intolerance toward the customs and religion of the Indians and a few years after that “first Thanksgiving” the children of the people who ate together and gave thanks were now killing one another in what came to be called King Phillip's War. And from our Sunday school lessons, we know how the nation of Israel at times disobeyed God and were very selfish and did not always share their wealth with others.
We may want to keep the picture of the history of Thanksgiving as a time of prayer, devotion, sincere giving of thanks, and sharing with others. History teaches us that these things did happen, but there were also times of selfishness and ingratitude. And the result for the Indians and Pilgrims was killing, famine, and disease. For the nation of Israel they suffered God's punishment and were invaded by their enemies and lost their land.
We can learn from the bad as well as the good when we study history. Giving thanks keeps us humble when we recognize that all we have comes from God. Giving thanks helps us to see that we need each other and are better off when we share our blessings. Giving thanks brings peace with others, especially with those who are different than ourselves. Giving thanks brings joy and more blessings.
When our history lesson is complete, we learn the benefits of giving thanks and the consequences of not giving thanks. Then, we know why it says many times in Scripture, “To give thanks always.” By our thanksgiving, we know our blessings come from a loving God who cares for our every need. And by our thanksgiving, we become a people who show charity and live at peace with one another.
When learning history it's important to know both the parts we like and don't like. Most school plays won't tell you about the war between the Pilgrims and the Indians. And we like to think that our ancestors were God's chosen people who never did anything wrong. But history tells us different. So we learn how it really was and we know we can't change the events in the past, but we can make our present day better, and we can make it better by being people who give thanks always.
