My Daily Pause

 ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? – Matthew 6:25-26 ESV

Edward Winslow wrote the following in his book Mourt’s Relation the following account of the event where we trace the modern Thanksgiving:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

We know the original settlers did not have an easy time. They needed help from the local natives, who “coincidentally” had an English speaker among them. People died from exposure and starvation, but the first thing they remembered was to be thankful. This is exactly what Paul meant in Philippians 4:6 when he said “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”