Philippians 4:4-7; I Thessalonians 5:16-18
A little boy was asked to say grace at the dinner table one night. He looked around at all the food his mother had prepared, and finally he bowed his head. “Lord,” he said, “I don’t like the looks of it, but I’ll thank you for it anyway.” Actually, this little boy is a perfect example of the meaning of the scripture lessons: we are to rejoice always; we are to give thanks in all circumstances, even when we don’t like the menu!
Sometimes it is easy to be thankful. Things are going well. Our work is meaningful, our relationships are comfortable, our children are as normal as we have any right to expect them to be, our bills have been paid, our table is full, and we manage to get to the end of another day with no disasters befalling us. Other times it is not so easy to feel thankful. Our work is drudgery, our relationships are stressful, our children keep us in constant turmoil, our bills are piling up, our table is not so full, and we seem to get to the end of the day in spite of the disasters that have befallen us. But no matter what kind of day today is, we are still supposed to give thanks.
Think about the earliest settlers in our “New World.” On December 20, 1606, three boats sailed down the Thames in London, setting out on a voyage to search for a safe port along the shores of Virginia. Susan Constant was the flagship of Sir Christopher Newport’s fleet, and measured 110 feet 7 inches long. Even though she only had 19 bunks, she carried 54 passengers and 17 crew. She was a sturdy ship, but with only the crudest accommodations. No one had any privacy except the captain. There was no galley, and the food was cooked in sand pots on the deck when weather permitted. The second largest ship in the fleet was the Godspeed. She was 69 feet 2 inches long. There were cramped living quarters for 12, but she carried 39 passengers and 13 crew members. The third ship was the Discovery, 50 feet and 6 inches long. The “below” area was partitioned into four bunks, but there were 12 passengers and 9 crew members on board. It took 128 days to get from England to Virginia. Just think about living in those conditions for that long. These brave souls finally landed at Cape Henry, Virginia on April 16, 1607 at 4:00 in the morning. The first thing these settlers did after coming ashore was to raise a large wooden cross and thank God for their safe arrival. No doubt, they also thanked God that they could finally get off those boats!
Jamestown was selected as the site for the settlement in May. Things were rough for these colonists. Disease and warfare with the Native Americans claimed many lives. Food was scarce. Several hundred settlers came to Virginia over the next six years, but at times there were only 60 people alive. On June 7, 1610, it was decided to abandon the settlement. The colonists sailed down the James River intending to set out across the Atlantic toward England. But the very next morning, they got word that Lord De La Warr had arrived with more settlers and supplies. Governor Thomas Gates returned to the empty fort, fell on his knees, and thanked God that the colony had been saved.
And here in New England, we have the story of the Pilgrims, brave and hearty men and women who sailed on the Mayflower, arriving at Plymouth Bay on December 21, 1620. This ship had taken 66 days to sail across the Atlantic from England. The 102 passengers had faced disease, anxiety, and even childbirth on the voyage. They arrived on the bleak New England shore during a hard winter, during which half of them died. However, when spring came and the captain offered free passage to anyone who wanted to return to England, not a single person accepted. They had come to a new land to carve out a better life for themselves, and they intended to make that happen.
In 1623, a proclamation was issued by Governor Bradford declaring a day of thanksgiving:
To all ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the raids of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
When Paul admonished the early Christians to rejoice always, to give thanks in all circumstances, it may have sounded crazy or idealistic or simply wishful thinking. How can you give thanks always? How can you rejoice in all things? What about when you are in the middle of a hard time? But sometimes we just can’t see the good that the hard times may be doing for us or in us. We only see the benefit of life’s experiences after the fact; but the trick is to maintain our faith, and our gratitude, ahead of the fact. William Law wrote, “If anyone would tell you the shortest, surest way to happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing.” Does that seem impossible? Maybe.
But listen to this example of that kind of faith from the life of Corrie ten Boom. In her book, The Hiding Place, she tells the story of how her family made the decision to hide Jews in their home after the Nazis took over their country. They were eventually found out and were taken to concentration camps as punishment. Corrie and her sister Betsy eventually ended up at Ravensbruck, the worst camp that they had been in. When they went into the barracks, they discovered that the building was infested with fleas. One morning, while they were reading Scripture together, they came to this passage in 1 Thessalonians, which reminds us to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances. Betsy told Corrie that she should thank God for every detail of their new living quarters, but Corrie absolutely refused to give thanks for the fleas. Eventually, at Betsy’s constant urging, Corrie finally gave in and thanked the Lord even for the fleas. During the months that they were held at the camp, they were constantly amazed at how openly they were able to hold Bible study and prayer meetings in the barracks without interference from the guards. It was not until several months later that they learned the guards refused to enter the barracks because of the fleas!
Still not convinced? How about the story of Enterprise, Alabama? That town actually put up a statue for an insect, to honor the Mexican boll weevil. Why would they want to remember the boll weevil? Because in bringing destruction, it also brought blessing. In 1895 the boll weevil began to destroy the major crop of the county, which was cotton. In desperation to survive, the farmers decided to diversify, and by 1919 the county’s peanut crop was many times more successful than cotton had ever been. In that year of great prosperity, a fountain and monument were built, and the inscription reads:
In profound appreciation of the boll weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity this monument was erected by the citizens of Enterprise, Alabama.
It is important and even necessary to be thankful in all things. Sometimes we take for granted all the blessings we should be enjoying. Every morning when we open our eyes, we should give thanks to God for the gift of life. Every time someone speaks our name, we should thank God for the gift of family and friends. Every time a bird sings or a dog barks we should thank God for the beauty and diversity of his creation. Every time we see a flower or an autumn leaf or a sunset or a full moon, we should thank God for the beauty all around us. There is something you can be thankful for every single moment of your life; if nothing else, you can be thankful that God is. God is. The worst way we can respond to him is with ungrateful hearts.
I read a legend about a man who found the barn where Satan kept his seeds ready to be sown in the human heart. He noticed that the seeds of discouragement were more numerous than any of the others and discovered that they could be made to grow almost anywhere. He asked Satan if there were anywhere the seeds of discouragement could not grow. Satan admitted that there was one place. “They will not grow in the heart of a grateful person.” If you fill your heart with gratitude, Satan cannot put discouragement in it. If you fill your heart with thanks and praise to God, there will not be any room for Satan. If you fill your heart with love, there will be no room for hatred.
This Thanksgiving, remind yourself to give thanks, even if it is hard. There is always a reason to thank God. I heard of a Southern woman who had this epitaph etched on the stone marking her husband’s grave: “He always appreciated.” I think I would like that to be my epitaph, too.
