Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving once again comes around, I think of the holiday. Recently I was told…”I don’t imagine Thanksgiving means all that much to you as every day is a day to be Thankful”. The person that told me that said it in connection with my belief in Christ and they were right. Thanksgiving, in and of itself, doesn’t mean all that much to me. And yet…in some strange way…it still has a bit of importance.

I remember when I was a child, once November rolled around, talk and teaching at school inevitably turned to the first Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims. I don’t remember what we were taught but I’m sure it wasn’t the truth of the Pilgrims. I can remember paper bag Pilgrim costumes and construction paper Indian headbands. The only thing I seem to recall from all those years of Thanksgiving instruction was how the Indians helped the Pilgrims survive.

I have recently begun to read William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation. I know I was never taught the things that are in that book.

Not all that long ago I watched a documentary on the history of the Bible, a documentary that was as much a history of true Christians as it was the Bible. In that documentary were many Christians that died for their faith. As I write this I think of those people, people that gave their lives for their faith in Christ. And I think of what I have read so far in Of Plymouth Plantation.

American Christians…no matter their beliefs or level of faith, or even their salvation…have what could be easily termed as ‘luxury Christianity.’ We don’t have to fear for our lives, we don’t have to beg, and struggle to gain access to a Bible, we don’t have to meet in secret. Professing ‘Christians’ are a dime a dozen, nearly every person you meet professes some kind of belief in Christ. Or it seems that way. True Christians are a bit harder to find. And so, those with a true saving faith may feel as if they’re alone in the world…and we may be alone in our world…but we all, true Christians and professing ‘Christians’, experience the ease of Christianity, even in a country that is ever more anti-Christian.

We are free to worship the Lord in any way we want, we have easy access to the Bible…not only that but we can get it in numerous translations and in just about any language we want. We can even put a translator on our computer to translate the Bible into the language of our choice. With internet access and the stroke of a few keys we can pull up copies of ancient manuscripts. We can visit museums that house very old Bibles. We can drive a few hours to view a ‘special’ Bible that may be on display in a certain town. We can go to conventions geared for the Bible, or biblical marriage, or Bible study, or… The list is endless in what we have access to.

There is a website that deals exclusively in very old and rare Bibles. I have browsed their website several times, mainly because it has pictures of these old Bibles, and I…have an interest in old Bibles. There’s just something about them that makes them fascinating to me. And so, from time to time, I visit this website that has pictures of these old Bibles that I will never have the privilege of seeing in person.

But the owners of this business don’t just sell old Bibles, they also put on an annual convention. They have presentations on the Bible. I’ve never been to one of their conventions, most likely will never go to one, but…in a world where people have died for the Bible…we live in a country that puts on Bible conventions in luxury hotels.

The same person that told me they don’t imagine Thanksgiving is all that important to me also told me something that tied, a great deal, into what has been much on my heart here lately. They said something about how we can never know enough of the Bible. Then I saw in a reformed magazine an advertisement for a book that spoke of enjoying the Bible.

I think of the struggles that Christians of the past have had, and what they must have had, in their faith. I think of Paul, living in a time when only the Old Testament existed and even with it’s existence…how widespread could it be? The first ‘printing press’ wasn’t developed until the 1400’s. Before that every Bible…or Old Testament…had to be written out by hand. So…what did Paul have access to? Maybe an Old Testament. Maybe a few writings of Christs time. And look at what he did.

I think of the Christians that lived in Paul’s time…how much they must have treasured his…or any true Christians…teachings.

We live in a time when the Word of God is plentiful. It’s as easy to get hold of as turning on your computer or cell phone with internet access or driving to the nearest department store, book store, or even thrift store.

I recently read about a man that challenged those he was doing Bible study with to write down what they could from their Bibles in two hours…under the ‘scenario’ that all Bibles were going to be confiscated in two hours.

I’ve spent some time simply copying the Bible, for the sole reason of wanting to have the experience of copying, or transcribing, the Bible, the way people of times past, or in some persecuted countries today, have done. I simply wanted to make that deeper connection with the Word.

And it is different. As I said before, owning a Bible in our time, in America, is as simple as using the computer (or other internet enabled device) or driving to the nearest store. You could probably even drive to the nearest ‘Church’ building, walk in and tell whoever was there how much you desired to own a Bible, and have one placed in your hands. Your very own. To keep for always.

It’s that simple. That easy. That readily available.

But it hasn’t always been that way…and it isn’t always that way for Christians in persecuted countries. And so…I wanted to experience what people have done when the Bible wasn’t so easy to come by. Word by word, minute by minute, hour by hour…which turned into day by day…I copied from my Bible. I watched what was written in the notebook I was copying into grow until the written on pages were thicker and thicker.

As I write this, I am still copying the Lord’s Word, as time allows. It is, simply a way of connecting to the Lord, through His Word, in a deeper way. Of understanding better what His people may have gone through to possess His Word.

In the documentary I watched, it showed people standing around holding single sheets of paper, paper that had the Bible, or part of it, written on them. Some people had stacks of those papers, some had only one. Some people gave the pages they held away, some kept them. But…they held pages. Single sheets of paper.

What treasures must those small bits of the Lords Word have been?

And Bibles in America are…as statistics say…rarely opened. Most American homes have at least one Bible in them…but most of those Bibles are never read.

And so…as we experience Thanksgiving…a day set aside to give thanks…I must say that Thanksgiving isn’t all that important, as my daughter put it, ‘it’s just a meal.’ And it is, even if we happen to spend the day with family we rarely see, so often Thanksgiving is just a meal. And more and more over the last few years, Thanksgiving is simply a marker, it is the day that marks the beginning of the Black Friday sales. Many stores are now making those Friday sales start on Thursday.

Because Thanksgiving is just a day…just a meal. And in a country consumed with things…and shopping for things…why not make it be the kick off for a day of gluttony, not of food as Thanksgiving has been known for, but of shopping, of spending money, of grabbing and buying as much as you can for as little money as you can. It matters not to most people if they need what they’re buying, or even if they, or the person they’re shopping for, wants it. If it can be had for a good price…why not get it?

But…Thanksgiving…if the Pilgrims are to be the ones given the credit for the holiday…should be seen as something more. These were people that gave up their homes, their jobs, their families, for the chance to worship the Lord by the Bible.

The Pilgrims…before coming to America…escaped, and escape is the only word that can be used to describe what they did, to Holland, for the right to worship the Lord. They tried to leave England but were betrayed by the captain of the ship they had hired to take them to Holland, and were arrested as a result. Arrested for trying to leave a country…for trying to find a way to worship the Lord by the Bibles standards. They tried again later…only to have their women and children arrested for again trying to leave the country so they could worship the Lord.

Once they finally made it to Holland, things were good there for a while, but in time they needed to flee again. They needed the freedom to follow the Bible. Their children were being taught things contrary to their beliefs…and once again they fled. They faced sickness and starvation…for their faith in the Lord.

And so…if we’re going to celebrate a day for Thanksgiving, maybe we should remember the Christians that have struggled and suffered, and be thankful that we don’t face the same persecutions…and be thankful that they did. Because they left a legacy for us.

They showed us what it means to really value the Word of God. Not just the Pilgrims, but all the Christians that have worked so hard to attain, and distribute, the Word of God.

During World War 1 all British soldiers were given a Bible as part of their kit. It was something comforting for them to carry with them. There were bodies that were recovered during the war with a Bible held in their hands. That gives us a clue of what they did in their last moments. Whether they prayed, or read, or simply held it for the comfort it gave, they turned to the Word of God in their final moments of life. I’m not going to hazard a guess as to the salvation condition of any of those men. It’s not my place to say, nor to wonder. Their salvation is the Lord’s. But…the fact that the Bible was handed out, carried, and turned to…at least by some…in their final moments, is a testament to where the Bible has gone, and what it has done.

During one of the wars…I wish I could give more information but I couldn’t find anything about this online…someone handed out Bibles to soldiers until the Bibles began to run low, then they started handing out single pages from Bibles. Figuring that part of the Bible was better than none, they tore the Bible apart, page by page, and handed those pages out. I understand that even that single page made a difference to those that had…and read…them.

But those of us that live in a country where we have experienced nothing but luxury in our faith, know nothing of the hardship that other Christians have experienced. We don’t need to have to worry about how we will dispense the Word of God, need never tear apart a Bible to be able to get it into the hands of everyone that wants or needs it. We don’t have to meet in secret to painstakingly copy down passages. We don’t have to try and piece the Bible together from fragments rescued from a burn pile, or from verses gathered here and there. We don’t need to hang onto our faith without instruction from the Lord Himself…we don’t need to ache spiritually for the Word of God because it is available and easy to get.

But it hasn’t always been that way, isn’t always that way today. There are still people that have no access to the Bible, still people that meet in secret and risk their freedom, if not their lives, to hear…to touch…to own…the Bible.

And so…I think of how I was told, ‘I don’t imagine Thanksgiving means anything to you.’ I must say that I enjoy the chance to enjoy family. For some reason…everyone seems to put just a bit more importance on being together on Thanksgiving. And so that makes the day a bit different, a bit more special. But in general, for the holiday itself, no…I don’t put all that much importance in Thanksgiving.

But this year…as my thoughts have turned often to the Bible, to the Christians that labored and died for it…I think Thanksgiving should be a time…as a Christian…of reflecting, if only a little, on what we have. Yes, in family…but also in the legacy that we, as Christians, have inherited.

As we pass the Bible on the shelf, or the table, or…wherever, we should take the time to think about just what it is. And what had to happen for it to be preserved for us, so that we might so easily, so carelessly, attain it today.

Because today is…

Thanksgiving.