You may know some or all this story but reading it again brings new meaning to me each Thanksgiving season. In the summer of 1620, a group of English Separatists planned to travel to the New World to escape religious persecution and begin new lives. They were not “wild-eyed fanatics” bent on endangering themselves and their families, in fact they had a very sound plan for survival. They would leave England and travel on two ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. With about 100 in their group plus the crew, the two ships would accommodate them well. They would leave in the summer to avoid the brutal Atlantic storms of the fall and land in sunny Virginia with plans to plant and harvest a crop of food well before winter. What could possibly go wrong?
They left England on August 5, 1620, but as the journey began, the Speedwell leaked badly, and they had to turn back to port. After an attempt at repair and another departure, the Speedwell’s leaks sent them back again. Now the Mayflower was their only option, and they were far behind schedule. On September 5, they finally sailed for Virginia, but the storms of the Atlantic were already blowing, causing damage to the ship and blowing them off course to the north. When they reached land in November, they were near Cape Cod, not Virginia, but the damaged ship and lack of food and water forced them to make landfall at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts.
That first winter with rationed food and disease rampant, more than half of the settlers died and were buried in unmarked graves to hide their depleted numbers. Winter passed and with the spring came a new friend, a Pokanoket tribal member named Tisquantum or “Squanto”. Because he had been kidnapped and had lived in England, he knew their language. They learned how to plant and cultivate crops from Squanto and harvested their first crop.
When November came with the anniversary of their landing and survival at sea. Most wanted to have several days of mourning and fasting to honor those, nearly half of them, who died from hunger and disease. But Governor William Bradford had the faith to suggest a feast of thanksgiving to God who had brought them through the ordeal and blessed them with a harvest. One eyewitness said of that decision, “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 labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week.” Those birds included waterfowl and probably wild turkey. Edward Winslow also wrote, “many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst 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 they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor.” (Edward Winslow, “Mourts Relation”, 1620)
Thanksgiving Day reminds us that we make choices every day, to live our lives in regret and grief or to remember that God has provided for us each day; the air that we breathe, the health we enjoy, the ability to work and produce, the strength to live and the opportunities to provide for ourselves and our families. May this Thanksgiving season reflect your good choice to live in gratitude not remorse!
(Steve Berger is pastor of First Methodist Church Minden, a Global Methodist Church. He is the husband of Dianne, his partner in ministry, they have two adult sons, a dachshund, and love living in Minden.)