“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.  Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.  For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations.”  Psalm 100:4-5

The Pilgrims would have been hard-pressed to settle in the Plymouth colony that winter of 1620 if it hadn’t been for the deaths in the Patuxet Indian village nearby.  Disease had taken the entire tribe, only one survivor remained, a boy named Squanto.  The Pilgrims were able to take advantage of an abandoned corn crop and cleared forest and so were able to stay alive.

The Pilgrims lived on the edge of survival.  Their journey began from Amsterdam; it took 66 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  104 arrived in the New World, including a baby boy born at sea.  Governor William Bradford wrote, “They fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, to set their feet on the firm and stable earth.”  But within four months, scurvy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis had depleted the small company.  As sickness raged, only six or seven persons were strong enough to tend the sick, comfort the dying and bury the dead.  Six died in December, eight in January, seventeen in February.  In March, Bradford wrote, “This month, scarce fifty remain.”

In the spring, when it was time to plant crops, the Indians came to their aid.  Samoset, a tall, powerful warrior walked into their camp and greeted them with, “welcome.”  He had learned English words from European fishermen fishing off the coast of Maine.  He introduced them to Chief Massasoit and Squanto.  Squanto had been kidnapped by pirates, lived for a time in England and spoke English.  He taught the Pilgrims where to trap eels and how to plant corn using fish as manure.  The first harvest was excellent, the food supply increased substantially and by fall, seven homes and four common buildings lined the street of Plymouth Colony!

That first Thanksgiving was a celebration of thanks to God.  The Pilgrims invited Massasoit to a harvest festival.  When he arrived, he brought 90 hungry braves.  Their contribution to the event were five deer.  They feasted for three days on venison, roast duck and goose, clams, shellfish, eels, corn bread, watercress and dried berries.  It was a time of thankfulness to God.  Edward Winslow wrote, “By the goodness of God, we are far from want.”  The goodness of God was often on their minds.  Although they had suffered great loss and hardship, they were aware of God’s great blessings:  the produce of the land, peace with the Indians, the joy of life and homes snug for winter.  “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.” 

 The Mayflower members were made up of three different groups:  Separatists (commonly known as Pilgrims who had separated from the Church of England), Puritans (members of the Church of England who wanted to purify the Church from its worldliness) and Crew Members (seamen contracted to work for a year in the new world).

Did you know the Pilgrims were given their name many years later in 1840?  Their name came from the verse William Bradford had in mind:  “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded…embraced….and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth!”  Hebrews 11:13 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Your friend, Jean