Happy Thanksgiving????

We wish others a 'happy thanksgiving', we bake pumpkin pies and turkeys, stuffing and buttered rolls, rye bread and cranberry sauce.  We send letters and e-mails and send smiles and love, but what is Thanksgiving REALLY about?
It was 1620.  There were rumors going around that some of the people were getting ready to leave England.  Leave England to where?  They must have thought.  Holland.  They journeyed to Holland, escaping the evil King's rule over how they should teach their children.  But Holland was teaching them to speak Dutch, no...they needed a new land.  A land that was fresh in which they could begin their families and bring up their children in their own teaching.
America?  It sounded crazy.  But one thing that the pilgrims all had in common was a dream.  The obstacles seemed to melt away...they held the ticket to freedom; and with their hearts and hopes held high, they set off.
I wish I could say that everything was just sailing on calm sea after that.  But as Chris Brady would say, 'Strong sailors aren't made on calm seas.'  No.  There was DREAM, STRUGGLE, VICTORY.  They knew that they were putting their families lives on the line...it was no game.
But as a father watched his wife die from scarlet fever, as a wife watched her child die from hunger, as a daughter watched her parents die from foul water...they had to remind themselves that it was all part of the STRUGGLE.  A movie that just has a guy with a fluffy little dream and then gets it is a boring movie.  But a movie that shows the struggle that they were willing to go to get is worth gold.  It shows the bravery of those who have gone before us, and inspires us to reach forward and be brave like them.
But the sweetest part about the struggle is that they know that the VICTORY is near.  The pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in 1620, half their families wiped out, and hardly any food...but yet they still found the strength to be thankful to God for bringing them through.  And one year later, they celebrated what we now call Thanksgiving.  How little are the things that we complain over!  

So I ask you, this Thanksgiving, are you just making a feast and sending letters?  Or are you thinking of the sacrifice that people went through to get us where we are.  Were still living in the freest country in the world...live up to your dreams.
And let us ALL be THANKFUL to GOD for bringing us through our struggles, to our victories, and more.
Let us never forget it.