It’s easy with all the excitement surrounding the gathering, preparation, and serving of the Thanksgiving meal, to get caught up with what’s featured on the menu more than to look at the true heart of the tradition. Although turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and all the fixings combined come together to make up a mouth-watering meal, Thanksgiving Day is about much more than the food served and what we eat.
Of course, many artists’ depictions of the Pilgrims’ 3-day feast with Native Americans focus on the variety of food served, but this grateful gathering wasn’t really about the food or who contributed which new dishes to the dinner table. If Thanksgiving is more than just food, where do we start in discovering its deeper meanings?
The Focus of the First Thanksgiving Banquet
The Pilgrims’ thankfulness to God began before they even arrived in America. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, historian, author, and executive director of the Providence Forum, in his film "The Pilgrims" leads viewers through the winter leading up to the 1621 thanksgiving celebration, one marked by a harsh, cold winter.
As well, illness and starvation led to the loss of many lives, and only a few Pilgrims made it through the devastating “starving times” and sickness to offer thanks. Despite a grueling 66-day voyage aboard the Mayflower and the heartbreaking circumstances in their new world, the Pilgrims kept their commitment and lived out what James 1:2-3 encourages. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
The following are eight reasons why Thanksgiving Day is more than just food.
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1. Thanksgiving Is about Being Committed to Gratefulness
As the Pilgrims decided beforehand, Thanksgiving is about being committed to thanking God, no matter what the circumstances or what the last year has brought in our lives.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 urges us to, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Our thanks aren’t to be conditional or based on what we’ve gone through during the year. It’s a commitment we make to thank God and trust Him in our situation, whether we’ve been struggling with life’s circumstances or living comfortably. Gratefulness to God is a heartfelt, sincere commitment we make to give thanks, no matter what we’re experiencing in our lives at the time.
2. Thanksgiving Is about Coming Together
Whether getting together with family, friends, or strangers we’re meeting for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, it’s about coming together to offer thanks to God. It’s a time of group thankfulness, of rallying together to give thanks. Coming together is so important because it builds unity with one another, the kind that helps us have the desire to help each other through difficult times.
Hebrews 10:24,25 explains, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Coming together with thankfulness to God helped the Pilgrims and Native Americans to better understand each other. It was such a simple act, yet it helped to lay a foundation for working together.
In America’s history, our Founders understood this principle. During the American Revolution, while America was struggling to be set free from British rule, the Continental Congress called colonists to national days of thanksgiving, where they joined together to thank God for His sovereign protection over their troops. They recognized how national thankfulness helps to bring people together and build unity among a diverse population.
1 Corinthians 14:26 emphasizes the value and importance of people coming together. “What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.”
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3. Thanksgiving Is about Remembering
Like the Pilgrims and America’s Founders remembered to thank God for his faithfulness and protection over them, Thanksgiving Day is about remembering. Psalm 77:11 declares, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago.” Especially when going through difficult times, it’s about our remembering all God has done in our lives, from our Salvation through Jesus Christ to His giving us the desire of our hearts in small ways that touched our hearts.
God calls us to, “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
4. Thanksgiving Is about Praising God
Thankfulness involves praising God and goes hand-in-hand with grateful words. We can do it through words, actions, singing and playing music, service, and more. Psalm 100:4 describes, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.”
Some believe praise only occurs through music, which is one way to express it. Psalm 147:1 encourages it, too, “Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him!”
Although one avenue, praise can also be expressed through the way we live our lives; in the words we speak; by the way we treat those around us; and in our willingness to serve others, all in praise for what God has done for us.“Let them, therefore, praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever” (Psalm 136:1).
As well, Ephesians 5:19-20 urges, “Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Sprit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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5. Thanksgiving Is about Treasuring What God Treasures
Our hearts play a big part in our lives by setting our priorities and what’s most important to us. When we focus our hearts on thankfulness, we gain an understanding of how to treasure the things that God treasures. Matthew 6:21 describes how, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
It’s too easy for us to be carried away with the current cultural trends of what is important and valuable in life and stray from the things that God treasures, like “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
Gratefulness to God for all He has given us is where we can start by treasuring the things God treasures, to thank Him for all the spiritual blessings He gives us, including Salvation through Jesus Christ (John 3:16) and the Holy Spirit who teaches us all things (John 14:26).
6. Thanksgiving Is about Sharing What We Have With Others
Like the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, the first Thanksgiving Day was about bringing together what we have to share with others. It’s about opening our hands with what we have stored up for ourselves and sharing with others.
Paul explains in Acts 20:35, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
When God blesses us, it gives us the opportunity and resources to bless others. “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11).
Jesus encourages us to “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).
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7. Thanksgiving Is about Encouraging and Caring for One Another
It’s about including others in our lives, calling them in, and ministering to them through hospitality and kindness. Being alone on Thanksgiving sometimes causes individuals to feel isolated and unloved. Psalm 41:1 reminds us, “Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.”
Being present with others and giving of ourselves fosters camaraderie between people and builds life-long bonds and ties.
In Romans 12:3, the Apostle Paul teaches, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”
Taking our eyes off ourselves, helps us to focus on and see those around us, who may need to be encouraged and cared for in practical and spiritual ways.1 Thessalonians 5:11 urges us to “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
8. Thanksgiving Is about Sacrifice
Whether it’s sacrificing our time to stop and give thanks, driving to spend time with loved ones, serving those in need, or donating food for those less fortunate, Thanksgiving Day is about sacrifice.
Hebrews 13:16 reminds us, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
As well, it’s often about us moving past our own disappointments and laying aside our selfish wants and desires to meet the needs of others.
The Pilgrims had a tragic year, losing many members to sickness and struggling through the cold winter, but were still committed to coming together. Like Psalm 116:17 encourages, “I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and call on the name of the Lord.”
Also, thanksgiving is to be continual in our lives, as Hebrews 13:15 explains, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name.”
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America’s Small Beginnings Shine Brightly
Hebrews 12:28-29 explains, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’”
William Bradford, who came on the Mayflower and became the first governor of the Plymouth, Massachusetts colony, wrote in his journal: “Thus, out of small beginnings, greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shown unto many.”
Like, David wrote in Psalm 105:1, “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name; make known among the nations what He has done.”
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Originally published Wednesday, 15 November 2023.
