November 2025

Good morning,

To imagine the First Thanksgiving is to visualize a top-heavy banquet table surrounded by hearty and grateful Pilgrims — the men wearing knee length breeches gartered to their long stockings, with jackets covering their knee-length shirts, and crowned with a tall, flat-topped buckled hat. And the women wearing long, loose shifts, covered by a stiff sleeveless garment, complimented by a flat linen collar, and their hair tucked neatly inside a bonnet. Together, they all gave thanks.

That mental picture is courtesy of Edward Winslow, one of the diners at that historic meal. He wrote, "By the goodness of God, we are far from want."

However, there's more to Winslow's verbal-picture than meets the eye. The backstory leading to that celebration is the real story.

One year prior to that first celebratory feast, 102 members of the Pilgrim party — including three pregnant women and about 20 kids — fled religious persecution in England. They boarded two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, destined for a new life in The Virginia Colony, located by the Hudson River — an area we now call New York.

Once at sea, the Speedwell sprung a leak, forcing the ships to return to port. Twice more they sailed, and twice more had to retreat. After expensive repairs — paid for by the Pilgrims — the Speedwell was declared unseaworthy. Therefore, the entire traveling party boarded an already overcrowded Mayflower.

The square-rigged Mayflower was short and broad — approximately 90 feet long and 25 feet wide. It was a merchant ship used for short hops along the European coastline. Its structural design was intended to carry cargo not people, and certainly not for transatlantic crossings.

The Pilgrim party was assigned to an area of the ship called Between Decks — a cold, dark, damp windowless storage area measuring less than 1,400 square feet. There was no running water or built-in sanitation. The ceiling was five feet high.

But, as one member wrote, "We verily believe and trust the Lord is with us."

Due to the delayed departure, the ship sailed through brutal storms and freezing temperatures. Navigational errors, by the inexperienced crew, caused nearly two additional weeks of sailing, depleting both fresh water and food supplies. The Between Decks stench and crippling seasickness only got worse.

Sixty-six days and 3,000 miles later, on November 21, 1620, the Mayflower arrived at the tip of Cape Cod, and then to nearby Plymouth.

Unfortunately, the challenges didn't end there. A harsh winter with blizzard conditions arrived about the same time. Starvation followed, and then a widespread epidemic. By spring, approximately half of the original party had died.

Pilgrim life had taken a bitter turn. This was not what they expected, nor was it how they believed God would bless them.

And yet, as Edward Winslow said, "By the goodness of God, we are far from want."

So, how does a person — even a devoted Pilgrim! — give thanks in such trials?

Scripture simply says, "In everything give thanks." (1Thes 5.18)

Being thankful is not conditional upon circumstances. We're to give thanks even in persecution, or deplorable situations, or after tough Sundays, or during contrary board meetings, or anything that befalls a Pilgrim or a pastor.

No other profession has a better seat at the thanksgiving table than pastors do. That's because our job requires us to "… study (His word) to show ourselves approved." (2Tim 2.15) And as we "let the word of Christ dwell richly" in us, it produces a supernatural response of "singing with thankfulness to God." (Col 3.16)

Simply said, filling ourselves with His word produces a thankful heart.

We, of all people, should "enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise." (Ps 100.4)

By the way, the Pilgrims never used the word Thanksgiving to describe that original Harvest Celebration — it would have been a complete contradiction. To them, the act of thanksgiving was always a time of prayer and fasting.

Thanksgiving and fasting! Two words you never thought you'd see in the same sentence!😊

Have a great Thanksgiving,