HOPE for the Holidays - Thanksgiving Day

My Rebecca's Family in Native America costume, 2013
(I'm 1/64th Cherokee Native American)

"How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose HOPE is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever!" (Psalm 46:5-6)

Story of Hope: 

        In 1621, the colonists in America weathered the terrible first winter in New England where half of the group would die from exposure, malnutrition, and disease. At the lowest ebb, only 7 people were healthy enough to tend the sick. But despite tragedy and hardship, those remaining persevered.
       On March 16th, an Algonquin Sagamore Native American named Samoset, speaking English he'd learned from Anglo fishers and traders, approached the company as they worked to build houses. Over subsequent days, other Native people visited the colonists including, Massasoit, their great leader, and Squanto, the sole survivor of the Patuxet people. The meetings resulted in a treaty of friendship.
       Throughout the hot, solstice days that followed, the Colony built their settlement and tended crops. At summer's end, Gov. John Carver called for a time of celebration for blessing the harvest and offering thanksgiving to God. The feast reportedly lasted three days and was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims.
       In 1623, a severe drought drove the colonists to their knees in fasting and petitions to Almighty God. Rain fell during their prayers, thus another thanksgiving observance took place upon Gov. William Bradford proclamation:

      "Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes, and garden vegetables, and made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from the pestilence and granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own counscience. 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 nine and twelve in the daytime 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."

O Father, on this Thursday, November 28, 2013, 390 years after Gov. Bradford's proclamation, may all the nations, tribes, people, and tongues of this whole World render thanksgiving to You, the Almighty God, for Your gracious blessings and unmerited mercies! And for my readers, please send rain into the dry places of their souls and make their lives watered gardens in Jesus' name! Amen and amen!

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness, 
Come before His Presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who made us, and not we ourselves.
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courts with praise!
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name!
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations!
(Psalm 100)