A lot of hand wringing has been done by those have been advised to curtail Thanksgiving celebrations. Some governors and mayors have told their constituents that the COVID -19 is so dangerous that we cannot get together as before with friends and family.
This will be a drag on some who will say their Thanksgiving is ruined. The virus has once again disrupted our lives and we are on a “new normal” as Americans. This is true of our own household. We will not be traveling to visit relatives nor will we be entertaining same. Is this a depressing fact of life in late 2020? Is Christmas also threatened, that time when we again have large groups in a celebratory mood? How about New Year’s Eve? Will Times Square have no revelers? (About that — enough people will rebel and thousands will be there if the dynamic duo, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo do not call out the National Guard to disperse those who want to dance in 2021.)
But isn’t all this angst somewhat misplaced? How can we arrest and jail a virus? We know how contagious it is, and how lethal it can be, but handcuffs will not stop its spread. We need a vaccine!
However, the celebration of Thanksgiving in America is more than turkey and football on TV. It is a look back at the historical beginnings of the greatest nation on earth and those who were, in difficult circumstances, grateful for the foothold they had gained on these hostile shores.
That cannot be erased by some disease which comes around once in a hundred years.
Also, those Pilgrims were worshipping a God who gave them the blessings for which they were grateful, a God who was and is and will be. He has not changed, and this insidious disease does not diminish His rule over us nor does it prevent His followers from enjoying His blessings.
So we need to take a step back and realize that (to coin a phrase) “this, too, will pass”. We need to take the long view of history and adapt our Thanksgiving celebrations to what we have to face this year.
One way would be to, in our now small gatherings, look back and find inspiration in how the Pilgrims overcame adversity. How easy it would have been for that little band of pioneers to have thrown up their hands and given in to despair; but they didn’t. Neither do we. As they did, we need to look around us and recognize the many reasons we have a Thanksgiving Day. We need to count our blessings as the old gospel song tells us to do.
What do we have? Even in our truncated celebrations we can look at the food on the table, see those in our small circle of a nuclear family whom we love and who love us and be grateful for this. Many in our world would be privileged to be where we are; how ungrateful we are to feel that being kept from having a “traditional” Thanksgiving is somehow demeaning and detracts from our lives.
We have a roof over our heads, a warm home and countless ways to mitigate the distance from our loved ones. We need to use the phone, or Skype to connect with them. There is so much “stuff” we have we take it for granted as if it were our due simply by being alive.
We can look back over the years and recall the many times we have gotten together with family and friends, and allow the memories to warm our souls. Perhaps a list of our blessings might show us that we are much better off than we seem to think as we are confined to small celebrations. When Jesus healed the ten lepers, as recorded in Luke 17:11-19, only one came back to thank Him for His miracle. I believe that when we complain about having our Thanksgiving being compromised, we are like those of whom our Saviour asked, “Where are the nine”. To not look to the spiritual and historical foundations of this holiday is to place us in that group of ingrates; we are the nine