THANKSGIVING: On Approach

Hello friends, we are on approach to Thanksgiving Day and it's a grand celebration isn't it? People say that it's the most traveled week in the year. I think the statistics, the stats show that the Tuesday and Wednesday prior and the Sunday after are the most heavily traveled both on the roads and by air. I think Thanksgiving week is the the funnest if I can use that word of the holiday season because the Christmas you're trying to figure out how do I get presents there and who do I buy what for and we're doing this online and Thanksgiving you just you don't bring presents you just bring yourself and and maybe a pie. This is Dick Foth with stories from the road. I'll not soon forget as a young boy in Oakland, California driving the several hours from Oakland which is on the coast of California by San Francisco into the interior what they call the great Central Valley near Fresno there's a little town called Dainuba and that's where my paternal grandparents lived. I just lived Leonard and Louise Foth little home with little backyard with roses attended by my wonderful grandmother and we caught tree frogs there and I tried to take them back to Oakland and a jar but they never quite made it. But I like going there because there would be biscuits and what they called miners honey had orange orchards around that area and my grandmother would make in the old ice cube trays before you had automatic ice dispenser some of you would remember ice cube trays she would I think mix cream or something with pineapple and it would be homemade pineapple ice cream still my favorite. Thanksgiving is an interesting moment in our history and so I asked the question why have a Thanksgiving day in our country and there's a fascinating story I believe it goes with that we had days like back in the 1600s plummet and it up in New England and then later on with George Washington and others where a day would be noted usually around harvest. For Thanksgiving the giving of thanks some states adopted such times. But September 28 1863 74 year old magazine editor by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale sent a letter to President Lincoln urging him to have the day quote have the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a national day and a fixed union festival an American custom and institution. Interestingly Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale's request apparently right away apparently she had written other presidents with no response at all or other people. The timing is stunning actually she wrote the letter September 28 1863 two and a half months earlier first week of July get his bird Pennsylvania that town that sits by car today probably an hour and 15 minutes north northwest of Washington DC. One of the biggest battles of the Civil War the turning point really happened there outside Gettysburg Confederate troops versus Union troops 160,000 soldiers and three days later in that first week in July there were 50,000 casualties more than 7,000 dead in three days of fighting. It was a horrific scene and the consequences were horrific the days and weeks and months that followed in the aftermath of the battle nurse Cornelia Hancock visiting nurse trying to help with the wounded rights to her cousin that there are no words in the English language to express the sufferings I witnessed. The country is very beautiful rolling but contrast to the awful smell of putrification with that as a backdrop 30 days after her letter Lincoln in October of 1863 wrote a proclamation of Thanksgiving so you have the sequence. First week in July this horrific battle later in September the last week in September Sir Joseph Hale writes her letter to President Lincoln and within 30 days Lincoln does this proclamation we have gracious gifts of the most high God who while dealing with this an anger for our sins have nevertheless remembered mercy. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those who are at sea and those who are sejourning in foreign lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the heavens. Back in July nurse Cornelia Hancock had written Gettysburg is one huge hospital this is post-battle 21,000 wounded union and Confederate soldiers were left on the battlefield hardly any pain killers it's she said the stench of death lingered in the air for weeks it could be smelled for miles. One month after the proclamation you have our first national Thanksgiving think about it first week in July horrific battle stench of death lingering for weeks and months if you will. September a lady writes a letter to the president October the president makes a proclamation and within a month of that a family pick any family in Gettysburg sits down to a meal thanking God for life with quite possibly and probably the smell of death in the air and I say what is that about. Well thanks are always needed that thanks are easy if times are good even more when times are hard however Thanksgiving swims upstream. Philippians 44 Paul writing to people who were oppressed under the thumb of Rome reads like this rejoice in the Lord always I'll say again rejoice let your gentleness be evident to all the Lord is near. Here's the part do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus as we approach this Thanksgiving day tomorrow. Wherever you are and whatever your circumstance there are things for which to thank God there's some horrific things going on in the world other places and we here in the United States are only touched by that in some small way relatively speaking. We need to pray for those in peril and we need to give thanksgiving to God for the for the privilege of one being able to do that but secondly just for this moment in time and grateful for you today and pray you have a great time with friends or family tomorrow wherever you are in this country around the world. God blesses dick folks signing off and will catch you actually day after tomorrow see you then. you you