[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Friday, November 22, 2013

[Paul]

Hello to all my loyal readers out there in cyberspace, no matter where in this world you happen to reside.  I hope that your day is going well, whether it's about to begin, end or maybe in the middle.

Our Daily Thought article for today is rather short, but I hope and pray that God will speak to your hearts and minds through the following lines.  This contribution has no author given, but it was taken from an issue of "Pulpit Helps" from a number of years ago and is entitled "Abraham Lincoln and Thanksgiving," rendered as follows:

>From boyhood, Abe Lincoln had been "most unusual" wherever he had gone--a strangely and different character.  This they knew, faintly, and because of it, he was President Lincoln.  But he had grown, and at Gettysburg, the place and occasion had come when, for two minutes, he stood out before the world, and by the strength and inspiration of God, stood tall and strong and straight--taller and straighter perhaps than any man had ever stood as a statesman.  In simple, easy-to-be-understood language, he had defined democracy, narrowed the distance between the people and government, and he had plainly, yet profoundly, stated the most worthy goal to which every true American should be dedicated.

Good men in the western world, as well as America, were, through him, being helped in their efforts to sense the possible dignity of the common man and common things--a government under God "of the people, by the people, and for the people." These memorable utterances they would quote more often than any other in American history, and they would exert a determining influence upon the thoughts and lives of men everywhere.

Seven days after the memorable Gettysburg Address, Lincoln nationalized the New England observance of Thanksgiving Day.  By his proclamation, that day was set aside as National Thanksgiving--the first ever to be observed by presidential proclamation, but followed yearly by every president since.

And there you have it for today.  To those who celebrate a national thanksgiving day in your country, I hope that you don't mind if I sound a little parochial here, but we in the U.S. do celebrate our national thanksgiving day on the fourth Thursday of November.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul