Thanksgiving - A Time to Remember

What was it like at the first Thanksgiving celebration? How did things go for the Pilgrims in the next few years?... 

As a bonus post for today (don't miss the main post from this morning!), here is a link to a live read-aloud I did last night from Barbara Rainey's book Thanksgiving - A Time to Remember. You may be surprised at the answers to the above questions!

Click here to watch on YouTube

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!

Of Plymouth Plantation

Do you ever wonder why you celebrate Thanksgiving Day? 

Is it for family time? Good food? Entertainment and a football game? Or to "be thankful"... without any specific object of your gratitude?

Finishing the following book last week was perfect timing to remember why we really have this celebration.

Even if only to put our own hardships into perspective, reading this first-hand account of the Pilgrims through several decades following their arrival in America on the Mayflower is eye-opening. But it also shows clearly how much these men and women of God were willing to sacrifice for the freedom to worship Him.

If you ever had the idea (like I used to) that all went well for the Pilgrims after the first good harvest and Thanksgiving festivities, this history would amaze you with year upon year of perseverance through famine, lack, danger, sickness, and injustice. And yet William Bradford, having lost his wife soon after arrival to this wilderness and under great pressure trying to govern this new colony could write as follows. 

What, then, could now sustain them but the spirit of God, and His grace? Ought not the children of their fathers rightly to say: Our fathers were Englishmen who came over the great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity. ... Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever. Yea, let them that have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered forth into the desert-wilderness, out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men!

• Bradford's History of the Plymouth Settlement,
Rendered into Modern English by Harold Paget

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let the Lord have the Praise

The following sentences brought mixed feelings, as they were the last words in a book that took me a year to read/listen [click here for the LibriVox.org free audiobook.]

Of these 100 or so of persons who came over first, more than half died in the first general sickness. Of those that remained, some were too old to have children. Nevertheless in those thirty years there have sprung up from that stock over 160 persons now living in this year 1650; and of the old stock itself nearly thirty persons still survive. Let the Lord have the praise, Who is the High Preserver of men.

William Bradford
Bradford's History of Plymouth Settlement, 1608-1650

I was glad to reach an end to the narration of so many hard years of trials and testing in the lives of the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Massachusetts. And yet, these firsthand accounts and documents testify to so much more than hardship. Oh, that every American knew this part of our history!

Just for Fun!

Even though my posts (and life) have been heavier of late, there are always joys to be found walking through each day with our good Shepherd.

One treat I often enjoy these chilly days (yes, we have snow on the ground now!) is my own version of hot-chocolate... half cocoa / half maca. What is that? You can find this nutrient-dense, powdered "superfood" at this link: https://www.vitacost.com/navitas-organics-maca-gelatinized  It reminds me a bit of peanut-butter. 

Find my recipe in the description of this short video: Favorite Hot Drink: Hot Maca-Cocoa

And while I'm sharing video links, here's one just for fun, full of sweet memories with Aunt Dorothy: Music Therapy with Down's Syndrome

If you haven't "met" her before:
Aunt Dorothy was a gift to our family as well as to countless others who knew and loved her!

Dorothy never spoke more than a few words in all her life, but music was always a communication point between us. Dorothy loved harmony - sparkling and voicing her joy when my sisters and I split into harmony from unison singing. Dorothy disliked dissonance - getting predictably agitated and loud when around unsettling music such as the 20th century Bartok pieces I practiced during college days.

Dorothy loved to dance with music. We could just start humming a tune, grab her hands, and go. Even singing hymns at church would get her grooving!

Even in her last week of life [in 2017] she lay in her wheelchair by my piano soaking up music. When nearly unresponsive in her last last day on earth, the voice of the Hospice chaplain singing a hymn brought a slight acknowledgement. My sisters and I sang to her again as we all gathered around in her last hour, and our brother-in-law led us in the Doxology as Dorothy entered heaven, where she now has the joy of taking part in the best music ever - praising her Savior!

This video [linked above] shows one of the times Dorothy took an active part in music. Even in her 50's, she loved sitting in my lap at the piano and "riding" my hands while I played. But here you can hear her one-note rhythm inspiring an improvised duet.

Recorded February 2013

There is No Other Way

 

"His thoughts said, Is there no other way of learning how to help another but by the way of suffering?

"His Father said, Had there been another way, would I not have found it for the Son of My love, whom no thorn of pain had ever pierced, who was tender as a child to the touch? If it became Me in bringing many sons unto glory, to lead the Captain of their salvation by that way, wouldest thou win souls without a pang? Settle it once for all; there is no other way."

His thoughts said… His Father said…
by Amy Carmichael

Sorry if my posts have all seemed heavy and impersonal of late. Life has just been too intense to put into words for a while. And my words have been needed for answering emails instead of blogging. I will try to share more from life soon. For now, I hope something has blessed you from these quotes that stand out to me.

A Solace for Sick Saints (and a prayer request)

'And I will strengthen them in the LORD:
and they shall walk up and down

in his name, saith the LORD'

▪︎ Zechariah 10:12

"A solace for sick saints. They have grown faint, and they fear that they shall never rise from the doubt and fear; but the great Physician can both remove the disease, and take away the weakness which has come of it. He will strengthen the feeble. This he will do in the best possible way, for it shall be 'in Jehovah.' 

"Our strength is far better in God than in self. In the Lord it causes fellowship, in ourselves it would create pride. In ourselves it would be sadly limited, but in God it knows no bound.

"When strength is given, the believer uses it. He walks up and down in the name of the Lord. What an enjoyment it is to walk abroad after illness, and what a delight to be strong in the Lord after a season of prostration! The Lord gives his people liberty to walk up and down, and an inward leisure to exercise that liberty. 

"Come, my heart, be thou no more sick and sorry - Jesus bids thee be strong, and walk with God in holy contemplation. Obey his word of love."

▪︎ C.H. Spurgeon, "Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" - October 11th

Illness has increased in our home this month. Would you join us in prayer for healing from a severe case of shingles (not mine) that even shocked the doctor? The pain is hardly allowing for any rest (let alone 'sleep') night or day for the last two weeks. This makes it harder than ever to heal.

Something Very Precious

If you live with chronic illness, you can relate to this conversation in the middle of World War I:

"'And now, two years later, it is no nearer the end than it was then,' said Miss Oliver gloomily.

Susan clicked her knitting-needles briskly. 'Now, Miss Oliver, dear, you know that is not a reasonable remark. You know we are just two years nearer the end, whenever the end is appointed to be.' ...

'Would you exchange them - now - for two years filled with fun?'

'No,' said Rilla slowly, 'I wouldn't. It's strange - isn't it? They have been two terrible years - and yet I have a queer feeling of thankfulness for them - as if they had brought me something very precious, with all their pain. ... And still' - Rilla gave a little apologetic laugh, 'I don't want to suffer any more - not even for the sake of more soul growth.' ... 

'We never do,' said Miss Oliver. 'That is why we are not left to choose our own means and measure of development, I suppose.'"

And the following quote will show why this book came to mind today:

"And you will tell your children of the Idea we fought and died for - teach them it must be lived for as well as died for - else the price paid for it will have been given for nought. This will be part of your work, Rilla. And if you - and all of you girls back in the homeland - do it, then we who don't come back will know that you have not 'broken faith' with us."

"Rilla of Ingleside" by Lucy Maud Montgomery was the first book I remember bringing to life for me the heros and the sorrows of war - both in battle and at home.

While this final book in the "Anne of Green Gables" series does contain a rather cheesy and shallow romance, it thankfully doesn't take up too much of the story. In short, it follows Anne's youngest daughter, Rilla, through what she expected to be the most exciting years of her life. Little did she know that her teen years would be defined by World War I.

Whether you are an "Anne" fan or want to learn more about wartime life for soldiers and their families this Veterans Day [in the USA], "Rilla" may just stick with you (as with me) as being one of those books that brought history to life.

Happy Veterans Day!

Find the free audiobook on Librivox.org and free e-book on Gutenberg.org

Nevertheless ... Hereafter

 

'Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven' - Matthew 26:64

"Ah, Lord, thou wast in thy lowest state when before thy persecutors thou wast made to stand like a criminal! Yet the eyes of thy faith could see beyond thy present humiliation into the future glory. What words are these, 'Nevertheless -- hereafter'! I would imitate thy holy foresight, and in the midst of poverty, or sickness, or slander, I also would say, 'Nevertheless -- hereafter.' Instead of weakness, thou hast all power; instead of shame, all glory; instead of derision, all worship. Thy cross has not dimmed the splendour of thy crown, neither has the spittle marred the beauty of thy face. Say, rather, thou art the more exalted and honoured because of thy sufferings.

"So, Lord, I also would take courage from the 'hereafter.' I would forget the present tribulation in the future triumph. Help thou me by directing me into thy Father's love and into thine own patience, so that when I am derided for thy name I may not be staggered, but think more and more of the hereafter, and, therefore, all the less of today. I shall be with thee soon and behold thy glory. Wherefore, I am not ashamed, but say in my inmost soul, 'Nevertheless -- hereafter.'"

- C.H. Spurgeon, Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith, May 30

What Would You Have Us Do?

Doesn't this quote from George MacDonald's book [set in the Highlands of Scotland when the crumbling clans were being driven out] sound awfully familiar today? I can think of several current applications,  though I will not address them on here. Just see what comes to your mind along these lines:

"I learn from the new men on the hills," resumed Donal, "that the new lairds have conspired to exterminate us. They have discovered, apparently, that the earth was not made for man, but for rich men and beasts!" Here the little man paused, and his insignificant face grew in expression grand. "But the day of the Lord will come," he went on, "as a thief in the night. Vengeance is his, and he will know where to give many stripes, and where few.—What would you have us do, laird?"

• "What's Mine's Mine" by George MacDonald 

Did you notice that last question: "What would you have us do, laird?"

That is a good question for us to be asking The LORD!

But the answer lived out by the fictional Scottish Laird and his clan is also insightful and surprising. 

To learn the answer, find the free audiobook on Librivox.org or free e-book on Gutenberg.org

By the way: I do NOT agree with all of George MacDonald's theology, so remember to read with discernment... as for any book. Just because an author is a Christian does not mean we can accept everything they say. Remember to filter it through God's word - the Bible.