‘Tis the Season by Paul Camuti

We recently celebrated Thanksgiving in which officially begins the holiday season that includes Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I say “officially begins,” because many retailers start selling Christmas decorations a week or so prior to Halloween. Although Christmas decorations start showing up in stores, people do not generally focus on Christmas until right around Thanksgiving.

For many years growing up, and even into my late adulthood like most people, although Thanksgiving and Christmas are within the same holiday season, I viewed them as separate holidays. However, if you start to think about it Thanksgiving and Christmas are actually very much related to eachother.

Why do I say that? I'm glad you asked. Think about it (maybe you already have and I'm just catching up). Thanksgiving, for many is about giving Thanks to God for either blessing us or getting us through some ordeals in which we are thankful to Him for getting us through said ordeals. For most, Christmas is celebrated for the birth of Jesus Christ, prophetically called, Emmanuel-God with us. It is appropriate that the Thanksgiving holiday preceeds Christmas, because we especially give thanks for the birth of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. This might sound cliche'd, but I truly mean this, if it weren't for the birth of Jesus, and my accepting Him into my life as Savior and Lord, I'm not so sure I would have made it to being 69 years young.

It is only within the last few years, I began thinking of Thanksgiving and Christmas as being inter-related for the very reason I mentioned above. Both holidays have God at the center of the celebrations (or at least He should be).

The first Thanksgiving was a celebration that was celebrated between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. The leader of the Pilgrims was William Bradford, and the leader of the Wampanoag Indians was Massasoit. The renowned Squanto helped the Pilgrims plant corn, among other things. After a brutal winter of 1620 through 1621, many of the Pilgrims and settlers of Plymouth had died from sickness and startvation. However, with the help of Squanto and the Wampanoag's the Pilgrims were able to survive. Not only did they survive but God blessed them with an abundance of crops. The Pilgrims were also taught how to hunt deer and fish.

The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians had a treaty which lasted 50 years. They were allies that came to each other's aid against other Indians that were common enemies to the Wampanoag's and the Pilgrims.

As stated, in 1621 God blessed the Pilgrims with abundance and they wanted to celebrate by giving thanks to God. Massasoit brought 90 Indians with him, with additional food. They all celebrated together for three days. The celebration was believed to be sometime between September 21 and November 9, 1621. William Brewster, who was a minister prayed, “We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice.”

After the American War of Independence had been won against the British, 143 years after the Thanksgiving celebration of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians, on October 18th 1783, Congress approved a proclamation for a day of prayer and thanksgiving. The proclamation was sent to all the states saying the following:

“Whereas it hath pleased the Supreme Ruler of all human events to dispose the hearts of the late belligerent powers to put a period to the effusion of human blood by proclaiming a cessation of all hostilities by sea and land, and these United States are not only happily rescued from the dangers and calamities to which they have been so long exposed, but their freedom, sovereignty and independence ultimately acknowledged. And whereas in the progress of a contest on which the most essential rights of human nature depended, the interpostion of Divine Providence in our favor hath been most abundantly and graciously manifested, and the citizens of these United States have every reason for praise and gratitude to the God of their salvation. Impressed, therefore, with an exalted sense of the blessings by which we are surrounded, and of our entire dependence on that Almighty Being from whose goodness and bounty are derived, the United States in Congress assembled, do recommend it to the several States...a day of public thanksgiving that all the people may then assemble and celebrate with grateful hearts and united voices the praises of their Supreme and all bountiful Benefactor for His numberless favors and mercies...and above all that He hath been pleased to continue to us the light of the blessed Gospel and secured to us in the fullest extent the rights of conscience in faith and worship.”

About 80 years later, President Abraham Lincoln, despite the Civil War still raging in 1863 declared a day of Thanksgiving. It came about as President Lincoln had received a letter from a 74 year old magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale. For many years she had tried to get several of President Lincoln's predecessors to have Thanksgiving celebrated nationally on the same day annually. President Lincoln was the only one to respond to her letter. In previous years, Thanksgiving was celebrated by Northern states and New England on varying dates. President Lincoln made a proclamation for the last Thursday of November to be, “A day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” The proclamation said the following:

“Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. 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 sojourning 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. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.”

These are just a very few of the examples showing that in early America, God and His bestowed blessings were at the center of the celebration of Thanksgiving as much or even more so than anything else that occurred during the celebration. And notice, there was also included “humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,” and a calling out to God for the healing of the wounds of our nation.

I am thankful for so many things, I could not be able to begin to number them. I am of course so very thankful for my wife, family and friends. I am thankful for the many blessings God has bestowed upon me. I am thankful for His faithfulness to bring me through the various trials and tribulations that sometimes this world and the devil hurls at me. But most of all, I am thankful for the One God sent to me (us) for the very reason we celebrate Christmas. On December 8, 1975 I accepted Jesus Christ into my life as Savior and Lord. It truly was the most important decision I made in my life. If I had not made that decision, I would not have my beautiful wife Deborah, my children and grandchildren, the people I have crossed paths with throughout the 49 years of my Born Again life.

I love the whole Bible, (though I do admit, Leviticus and Ecclesiastes are two books I struggle with while reading). My favorite books of the Bible are a tie between the Gospel of John and the book of Acts. My favorite verse is John 1:12 which reads, “But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them gave He power to become the sons (children) of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

The word power in this verse is a Greek word, exousia. It is delegated authority, which also means, the liberty and the right to put forth power. Anyone who receives Jesus Christ into their lives is given the liberty and the right to put forth the power to become the children of God. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul states that as children of God we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17). If not for the birth of Jesus Christ, and what He accomplished for us through His life, sacrificial death, and His resurrection, I don't believe there would be anything else worth giving thanks for.

Anyone who comes across this article that has a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I hope this gives all of us something to think earnestly about, and puts Thanksgiving/Christmas in another perspective. I know that these reflections has given me a deeper appreciation for what we celebrate at this time of year.

If anyone who comes across this article does not have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I pray that you would take the time to seriously ponder what has been written here, and that you would open up your heart to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, receiving the liberty and right to put forth power to become a child of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. I hope you have all had a beautiful Thanksgiving, and will have a joyous Christmas celebration. Love and God bless, Pastor Paul.