Why Suffering Makes Better Thanksgiving

Probably the most iconic Thanksgiving themed painting is Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” illustration produced as part of his “Four Freedoms” series.  All those excited faces around the table as the grandparents set the bird out for a Thanksgiving meal is the idyllic happy moment we all want to remember as our own.  What many of us fail to remember is the historical context.  It was published in 1943.  Many historians believe that 1942 and 1943 were the deadliest two years in all of recorded history.  When that famous illustration when to the printers no American (or anyone in the world for that matter) knew for sure what type of horrors or victories the future held.  They knew what they had already endured, and they were thankful for life, provision, and family.

“Now Thank We All Our God” by Martin Rinkart rang out in churches all over our nation yesterday.  Again, the historic context of the song should impact our perception.  Rinkart ministered in the German town of Eilenburg that had suffered the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War.  This war which had started as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics eventually claimed an estimated 8 million lives through direct and indirect casualties.  Ten percent of Europe’s entire population had been lost.  It would be like losing 32 million Americans today.  On top of that a plague broke out in 1637.  During that year Rinkart conducted over four thousand funerals, sometimes as many as fifty per day!  As the ravages of war died down, and the plague subsided, Rinkart with a truly relieved and thankful heart penned those words that we still sing today.

The pilgrims of the Plymouth plantation suffered greatly in their first winter in this new world.  Of the 102 members of their group, 48 perished.  They later faced their own ignorance about how to survive in the New World, drought, and other hardships.  Yet they persevered through their difficulties as only they knew how, they worked hard, and they prayed.  They spent prolonged time in corporate prayer and fasting and God responded with help–and rain.  These precious gifts from God amid unimaginable hardships prompted what we now consider the very first American Thanksgiving.

Yesterday, we read Psalm 136 responsively in our worship.  In that great Psalm the people remember God’s mercy in delivering them from the harsh slavery of Egypt.  God wanted people to remember that they had spent 430 years as slaves. Again, the experience of hardship leads to Thanksgiving.

If all we had from God was ease and abundance, we could never truly appreciate His mercies.  It is God’s mercy combined with our hardship and suffering that gives us the deepest most meaningful understanding of true thanksgiving.

Give thanks to God this week with tears—and joy.