"Inasmuch as the great father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as has protected us from the raids of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time on Thursday November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all his blessings."
As a native of the heart of New England – Old Orchard Beach, Maine is my Salvation Army home – Bradford's words resonate with me. The landscape of my personal past includes memories of hard-working truck vegetable farmers, clam diggers and fishermen. The summer people were my savages both wreaking havoc and providing sustenance for us local Mainers! I was always glad to see them go back to New York and New Jersey so life could return to normal.
The Maine I grew up in also could be a harsh and isolated place at certain times. Winters and slow springs hearkened back to Pilgrim times, though not nearly so difficult even during old fashioned nor’eastah storms. I remember bleak times like November of 1963. JFK's assassination felt like the beginning of the end as I knew. And, there have been times of great ecstasy like Ted Williams 521st home run and when the Sox finally won the World Series.
Bradford's call to worship on that Thanksgiving calls up in me something more foundational than any other memory. My grampa's simple prayer before the 40 or so of us became the stuffed turkeys was perhaps the most poignant preachment I've ever heard. What he said escapes me after all these years. But, his face chiseled by the great depression, loss of his first wife, and so much more that I never knew about shaped him into one of the greatest men I ever knew. Grampa lived by two life principles that he pounded in to me: "God is my boss!" and "When you quit, you’re done."
These are two pretty good principles to consider this Thanksgiving as we live in a world full of turmoil and trouble. King David was in a life-long life and death struggle when he wrote Psalm 24 which begins: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein."
We'll ponder our lives, our situation, our world at some point during this feast time. Whilst making the decision whether or not to put a second dollop of whipped cream on the pumpkin pie, it might do to consider Bradford's call to worship Him who is Creator, Preserver, and Governor. And, David's call to be a holy people with holy hands in his great paean of praise to the Lord of Hosts in Psalm 24 may well be our best ensign as we enter the holiday season.
Asbury Park Corps
