Thanksgiving message

Dear Editor,

So many people nowadays believe in “coincidence”, rather than miracles, but Americans are about to celebrate a national holiday that is so dependent on miracles, that it’s impossible to discount them. That holiday is Thanksgiving and the biggest miracle of all is how God intervened in history and used a young Indian boy named Squanto (from the native pronunciation of Tesquantum) to be His special instrument of providence to serve America’s earliest settlers!

Your child’s revised school textbook probably won’t describe it this way, but our nation’s history books document it, so it’s difficult to ignore!

In 1608, before the Pilgrims arrived, English traders sailed to Plymouth, Mass. and were met by trusting, innocent Wampanoag Indians who, they assumed, were there to welcome them to the new land. Instead, they were taken prisoner, shipped to Spain and sold as slaves.

The horror of Squanto being separated from his family is painful beyond imagination. But here is where God enters the picture, as He sends a Spanish monk to buy him, and teach him Christianity. After living with him for l0 years, he found passage on a ship and returned to England, where he worked for John Slaney, who helped him return to America. When he got to his village, he found that an epidemic had killed his family and everyone else. He must have asked God why he had allowed him to return after so long, only to find everyone dead.

But, a year later, he got his answer, when a ship of English families arrived and settled on the land where his family had lived. He greeted them in English, to their great surprise! He befriended them, taught them to farm, hunt and fish and remained with them, teaching them skills needed to survive in the harsh, new land. Governor Bradford recognized that “Squanto became a special instrument of God for our good…until he died,” as he wrote in his personal diary.

Because of this Indian boy, and our fore-fathers success in America, we are the only nation in history, anywhere on earth, that sets aside a day specifically to thank our Creator for His blessings. Despite our political and religious differences, America was destined from its earliest days to be a nation chosen to be light in a dark and evil world. Remember to tell your children that, and to give thanks to Almighty God as they eat their turkey!

Tags: opinion, letters, thanksgiving