Thanksgiving is not a religious...
Illustration
Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. It is a national holiday. It is pretty much a law that we give thanks to God on this day, and the presidents have proclaimed it as such. But we are an ungrateful people, so we cloud it up with football and turkey and parades and parties and whatnot.
Here's something: each football game will begin with the national anthem. Or they think they do. Most people know the words to the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner. They think that's the National Anthem, but they don't know that it has four verses.
The fourth verse is a hymn of thanks and praise and a reminder of where the victory, the peace, indeed all gifts come from.
Francis Scott Key's hymn included a motto later used on U.S. money starting in 1865, and made the legal motto of the country in 1956. His four-verse long poem became the National Anthem in 1931.
Even in our National Anthem we are asking, can't we pray together on this one thing: that we need to be grateful and give thanks and praise to God, no matter what? Because when we trust in him, we know gratitude.
Maybe we should sing the fourth verse more often than we sing the first.
Here's something: each football game will begin with the national anthem. Or they think they do. Most people know the words to the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner. They think that's the National Anthem, but they don't know that it has four verses.
The fourth verse is a hymn of thanks and praise and a reminder of where the victory, the peace, indeed all gifts come from.
Francis Scott Key's hymn included a motto later used on U.S. money starting in 1865, and made the legal motto of the country in 1956. His four-verse long poem became the National Anthem in 1931.
Even in our National Anthem we are asking, can't we pray together on this one thing: that we need to be grateful and give thanks and praise to God, no matter what? Because when we trust in him, we know gratitude.
Maybe we should sing the fourth verse more often than we sing the first.
