I glanced at my online news apps, and the thought bubbled to the surface from several sources. The history books are wrong, but I know the truth; let’s set the record straight about Thanksgiving. What? Are history books wrong? Does someone today who did not live then know the true story? Where did history go wrong? What was the source they used to paint the picture wrong? Who can even know the truth?
What is the truth of the matter?
Think about it. It’s a near impossibility to know whether the facts we’ve all been quoted are accurate. Even if we lived through it, we often see with narrowed vision and only understand our little slice of the story.
We base what we believe on facts in evidence. Even if we were not alive during their creation, call it faith if you want, or even a delusion based on your worldview. Who are you to set the record straight? Most of us only casually remember our history lessons from school days. Now, 50 years later, I can barely recite the names and faces of those early years. Thanksgiving has become a business of its own. You know your version of the holiday very well. Food, family, friends and football.
Name any holiday with roots of historical perspective, and all you find is modern recycling of the story. Facts are lost through time, and the retelling often exists with the embellished drama of the storyteller.
We build our own cultural appropriation of a story that does not represent the reality of the day.
Where’s The Truth?
Buried inside of the embellishments, you may find a small nugget of reality. Was turkey the centerpiece of the dinner table? Did they even know anything about green bean casserole? Was their dressing made from bread scraps or cornbread meal? Do you think they would have eaten deviled eggs? Did cranberries come in a can? Where’s dad’s Fruit Salad, or if he’s not here, who wants to be the one that forwards his tradition to the next generation?
I was thinking about Jesus this morning. You know, the next major holiday that has been hacked from history and told in such a way that we have no clue what the time was really like. All the facts the Bible teaches us about his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension are scattered across several decades of a time we would not have enjoyed. Conquered and controlled, Israel was still looking for a redeemer that had been sought since expulsion from the garden.
Not to slice and dice the words and find the hidden meaning (I believe there is one), let’s take the words at face value. Pilate had been warned against getting involved with Jesus. Repeatedly he tells the crowd, “I find no fault in him.” But the crowd clambers for blood. In one conversation with Jesus, he asks, “What is truth?” Jesus does not answer him.
John is telling this part of the story. (John 18 and 19) He’s offers a different perspective on the life of Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:1-5, 14 NKJV)
Much later he writes his final epistle (his are very short!) and it’s only later that he pens the Revelation of Jesus Christ (final book in the Bible):
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
(3 John 1:4 KJV)
Here’s My Thought
It’s a simple thought to share today. It’s Thanksgiving – so we give thanks. If it’s Christmas, we celebrate the Birth of Christ even if December 25th was not his birthday. When the New Year comes, we close the story on the old and open a blank page for the new. The world does not get to tell us what we celebrate, nor how we choose to remember the history. You arrived at this day with a long cultural story in place. With additions and subtractions you are here to give thanks. You get to choose how you do this.
I am praying for you as we move into this season of weirdness! I’m thankful you are a reader and you chose this blog post to read.