Scriptorium Daily
God does not need a presidential proclamation of thanksgiving, but the nation does.
Thanksgiving reminds us that our success is not all in our hands. Our leaders, even the ones who mean well, do not control all events. Best reason and best experience shows that cosmic history is complicated.
The events that impact a nation are ultimately in God’s hands. Because God loves human beings, He does not always give us what “we deserve.” No nation, and this includes our beloved United States of America, would long survive that test!
That does not mean that God’s will is easy to understand. God’s actions are difficult to read in history, because His world is complicated. The blessings earnestly prayed for in one nation may bring harm to another people. God balances great complexity in making this the best possible world for free human beings.
Our appropriate response to that wise governance is awe, worship, and a profound humility. We are thankful for the blessings God sends to us knowing that many of those blessings are unmerited by the wisdom of our leaders.
Lincoln (as always) put it best in his Thanksgiving Proclamation when referring to some of America’s blessings:
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.
This is a good thing for a big and powerful government led by a powerful and dynamic politician to do, because it introduces, if only for a moment, a touch of humility. It is this moment of reverential awe that makes morally tolerable the boundless American flag-waving.
We are proud of our nation, but also aware of our faults and thankful for God’s mercy.
Cynics are right to note that much of this humility is hypocritical, but that doesn’t make it useless. False humility is the forced tribute that hidden pride must pay to virtue. It may not do the hypocrite any moral good, but it benefits the rest of us. The hypocrite’s sin is hidden, and we do not know his virtue to be false, so can learn from it!
The cynic is wrong that Presidential proclamations of Thanksgiving are always forgotten. A quick Google will show that the best of them are remembered and have done some good. Of course, most of them are forgotten because most of them are not very well written. In fact most of our Presidents end up pretty nearly forgotten (Millard Fillmore anyone?), since most of them were not very good either. We can still hope President-elect Obama will do better! Obama is trying to craft historically memorable phrases for his Inaugural address undeterred by the failure of most of his predecessors . . . it is the example of past successes that will spur the attempt.
Most Americans have always wanted their government to pause and urge them to think on higher things. President-elect Obama will almost surely continue that tradition. Secularists wasting energy worrying that this will lead to a theocracy have been wrong for two hundred years and would do more for the holiday if they found a way to give us a better Detroit football team.
As we sit before our turkey this year, my family will pause to remember the wisdom of Ronald Reagan in one of his eight Thanksgiving proclamations:
Today we have more to be thankful for than our pilgrim mothers and fathers who huddled on the edge of the New World that first Thanksgiving Day could ever dream. We should be grateful not only for our blessings, but for the courage and strength of our ancestors which enable us to enjoy the lives we do today.
Let us reaffirm through prayers and actions our thankfulness for America’s bounty and heritage.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
