I am afraid some of our young people are misinformed concerning the first Thanksgiving. They are led to believe the Pilgrims were thankful only to the Native Americans. However, both the Pilgrims and Native Americans were thankful to the Lord.

The Pilgrims were thankful for God’s provision of a sympathetic Native American named Squanto. As a young boy, he was captured and sent to England as a slave where a pastor bought him and taught him English. He also learned to read and write and about the Pilgrims’ God. The pastor returned him to his home and family before the Pilgrims landed.

In the spring of 1621, Squanto met the Pilgrims where he was able speak with them in the King’s English. He taught them how to plant corn and survive in the New World. Not only did Squanto trust the Pilgrims’ God, but he also shared Him with his own people.

During the summer of 1621, a terrible drought threatened the corn crops, which was the main source of food for the Pilgrims and Native Americans. The Pilgrims set aside a day of prayer and fasting for rain. Before the end of the day, the Lord sent a gentle soaking rain. The Native Americans then recognized the Pilgrims’ God and were thankful to Him. During previous droughts, the Native Americans, through their pow-wows, would bring the rain, but it would fall so hard it would destroy what crops were left.

Thanksgiving is more than just thanking each other. It is acknowledging God as the source of all our blessings. He provides the abilities, resources and those who help us through life. We thank those who help us, but we give the praise and glory to the Lord for providing them. We must recognize our lives have two dimensions; the temporal, which is what we see and understand and the eternal, which is what God sees and understands.

We will never learn how to be thankful for things we wanted but did not get if we have not been thankful for things we have already received. Psalm 37 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…” We are thankful when the Lord opens doors and gives us blessings. We can also learn to be thankful when doors are closed and blessings do not come.

Thankfulness comes not from what we have, but from who has us. Being thankful is the attitude of gratitude. We can have everything and not be grateful, yet have nothing and be thankful. God’s Word says, “Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.”

Steve Conwell, pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church, is heard mornings on WFLO and WVHL in “A Thought For Today.” His email address is SteveConwell@outlook.com.