Happy Thanksgiving!

I turned on the radio to find that today even NPR was singing about Jesus—even during Terry Gross’s Fresh Air!

How appropriate, for this week of Thanksgiving, that even NPR should sing praise to God.  We may not always remember it, but Thanksgiving is supposed to be all about God, about giving Him our thanks and even our service:

Our first president, George Washington, in his 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation, agreed with Congress that we should have “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God,” and called for this Thanksgiving Day

to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions . . . .

(Read the full text here or here.)

Some several score years later, in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln renewed the call with his own Proclamation, encouraging all Americans to set aside “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” for our many blessings, even in the midst of war:

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. . . . And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

(Read the full text here.)

Lyrics of the song above, “On The Jericho Road”, Merle Haggard, as performed by the Hee Haw Gospel Quartet:

As you travel along (as you travel along)
On the Jericho Road (on the Jerico Road)
Does the world seem all wrong (does the world seem all wrong)
And heavy your load (and heavy your load)
Just bring it to Christ (just bring it to Christ)
Your sins all confess (your sins all confess)
On the Jericho Road (on the Jericho Road)
Your heart He will bless (your heart He will bless)

On the Jericho Road (on the Jericho Road)
There’s room for just two (there’s room for just two)
No more and no less (no more or no less)
Just Jesus and you (just Jesus and you)
Each burden He’ll bear (each burden He’ll bear)
Each sorrow He’ll share (each sorrow He’ll share)
There’s never a care (there’s never a care)
For Jesus is there (for Jesus is there)

Oh brother to you (oh brother to you)
This message I bring (this message I bring)
Though hope may be gone (though hope may be gone)
He’ll cause you to sing (He’ll cause you to sing)
At Jesus’ command (at Jesus’ command)
Sin’s shackles must fall (sin’s shackles must fall)
On the Jericho Road (on the Jericho Road)
Will you answer His call (will you answer His call?)

On the Jericho Road (on the Jericho Road)
There’s room for just two (there’s room for just two)
No more and no less (no more or no less)
Just Jesus and you (just Jesus and you)
Each burden He’ll bear (each burden He’ll bear)
Each sorrow He’ll share (each sorrow He’ll share)
There’s never a care (there’s never a care)
For Jesus is there (for Jesus is there)

Happy Thanksgiving!