Thanksgving on the Big Screen

Ever wonder if God has Netflix?
When I get I to heaven, I want to check out His home movie collection so I can see real footage of past events. Maybe God has a giant reference room, with HD flat screens from floor to ceiling, soft-as-cloud couches, and remotes to call up any event in history on his divine DVR. Think Best Buy’s wall of TV’s on a heavenly scale. Just imagine what you could see: Military battles. Explorers. Inventors. The Detroit Lions winning a playoff game. You could call up key points in American history like Washington crossing the Delaware, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and that magical day in July of 1968 when I was born. Maybe you’d see Mrs. Lincoln say to her husband, “Gee honey, the popcorn at Ford’s theater is so over-priced, why don’t we stay home tonight?”

Near the top of my list of events to watch would be the first Thanksgiving. Unless you eat outdoors, share your table with natives, and serve beer-battered eel, the first Thanksgiving was very different from how it is normally portrayed. It was more of a Harvest Festival instead of a day of thanksgiving. It was surely very spiritual as the Pilgrims were religious Separatists, but a day of thanksgiving would have been set aside for worship in church.

So on God’s scoreboard-sized, gold-plated TV you’d see a three-day party, with the 53 Pilgrims and 90 natives of the Wampanoag tribe eating, dancing, singing, and playing games. You’d see Squanto, an English-speaking native, translating for his chief Massasoit and perhaps congratulating the Pilgrims on the success of using the hunting, fishing, and planting tips he gave them. Maybe God’s video pans to the cemetery tucked into the rolling Massachusetts hills where the 49 pilgrims who didn’t survive the first year were laid to rest.

The video undoubtedly would show Chief Massasoit meeting with his warriors discussing his uneasiness with the white man. Did he talk about the plagues that the Europeans had brought in previous years that tomahawk-chopped the local native population to pieces? You might catch him wearily looking over his shoulder for other ships on the horizon arriving to cart the natives off to the West Indies as slaves.

Outnumbered almost two-to-one, I bet Myles Standish and William Bradford kept a nervous eye on the natives during the festivities. The first point of business upon going ashore in the spring had been to sign a treaty and exchange hostages.

This precarious relationship between the natives and colonists is missing from the standard Thanksgiving stories. The two groups got along for the most part, but there were times of struggle, with battles and fighting. Finally in 1675, war broke out. Massasoit’s son, Metacomet led the natives against the colonists in what is known as King’s Phillip’s War. The war is considered one of the bloodiest on America soil.

Missing from the scene would be many of the traditional Thanksgiving items such as cranberries, potatoes, pies and apples. Instead, the Pilgrims sat down for a meal more likely suited for either a seafood-lover or a vegetarian. Fish, lobster, eel, mussels, and oysters, as well as a dozen different veggies, dried fruit, and nuts probably rounded out the spread. And what about the turkey? Any meat served was probably venison, and early records only reveal the Pilgrims eating “wild fowl” which could have been turkey, duck, or geese.

Over time the first Thanksgiving has morphed into a memorable event of food, family, and football. It tucks autumn to bed and signals the beginning of the Christmas season. We try to incorporate some thankfulness into the day. A cousin sent me a quote by author Melody Beattie that perfectly summarizes a thankful heart.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

I truly hope your house is full of feasting and thanksgiving today. I also hope you can say a prayer of gratitude for the survival of those early Pilgrims and the help they received from the Natives. Relations may not have been optimal between the two groups, but at least they started out by working together. If you have any tension or strain in a relationship with a loved one, Thanksgiving should be a day to serve up acceptance and reconciliation. Don’t wait until a war breaks out. Apologize and or forgive and enjoy the stuffing.

And don’t forget the eel.