Come Ye Thankful People: A Thanksgiving Hymn to Remember in 2022
Several weeks ago, I received a thank-you note in the mail. I read the note briefly and set it aside. Later, I read it again. The person who wrote that brief thanks took time out of their day, found a card and envelope, wrote words, found a stamp, looked up my address, and went to the mailbox to send it. While I appreciated the words, the time the person took to send their thanks meant even more to me. It made me think about taking time to give thanks to God this Thanksgiving, 2022.
The Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians celebrated a “harvest of thanksgiving” 401 years ago. Their menu included roasted goose, lobster, cod, and cornbread. Our Thanksgiving dinner menu traditionally includes turkey and pumpkin pie (with a “side” of gratitude?).
I once heard the story of a little girl, who when asked by her teacher to tell the class what she was thankful for, the little girl hesitated and then asked, “Who are we thanking?” As a child, we were taught that the Pilgrims were thanking God. For those who have come to know the love of our God, thanksgiving should be a daily habit, but setting time aside to offer a “sacrifice of thanksgiving” to God (Psalm 50:14) is something we can still practice on Thanksgiving as the early Americans did.
Growing up in the church I remember singing "Come Ye Thankful People, Come”. The words to this hymn are foreign to us in 2022, but it is a call to God’s people to gather, sing praise, and give thanks to God after a successful fall harvest. The first two stanzas of that hymn remain clear in my mind:
“Come ye thankful people, come, Raise the song of harvest home.
All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storms begin.”
We traditionally practice the part where we come together with family or old or new friends on Thanksgiving.
The purpose is to set time aside in giving thanks together to the God who is Provider.
How easily, though, we can go right past the “thanks” part and on to the meal, the football game, or preparing for the next holiday.
I seldom consider the “harvest” or hardships of farmers and their crops...our food just shows up at the wholesale or specialty grocery store. I can grumble when I have to put groceries away as opposed to singing joyfully about my grocery supplies. Today, we are “safely gathered in” locked or electronically monitored homes. And our thoughts of “winter storms” might include snow tires, delays, and cozy fires.
Tish Harrison Warren’s book, Liturgy of the Ordinary, is a book that has challenged me to be thankful for the “ordinary” we sometimes take for granted: safely waking up to a new day, a pillow to call my own, a home for my bed, my own bathroom, a toothbrush, teeth to brush, running water, that first cup of coffee, a quiet place to sit and enjoy my coffee, freedom, and ability to read my own Bible/devotional, prayers written out for me in the Psalms, and forgiveness and hope found in Jesus going directly to the Father in the Name of Jesus.
Thanksgiving takes place in the very first hour of a new day!
A sacrifice of praise means taking time to give thanks – to God - for the daily blessings of the life we can so easily take for granted.
To be “safely gathered in” is about knowing that God is still in charge (1 Corinthians 8:6) and having genuine gratitude for today, trusting Him for tomorrow. The remaining verses of this hymn focus on the “tomorrow,” or the return of Jesus where we will be “free from sorrow, free from sin” ... thanking God Who guides us to remember that through Jesus we can see the joy of the Lord today, now, and forever.
After God created the Earth and made man in His image, He said that it was good (Genesis 1). If a handwritten note can mean so much to a person, we can assume that God delights in his people when we take time to offer “thanks” for all the good we enjoy. Today and every day, not just on Thanksgiving, we are to “raise the song of harvest home” and thank God for the very ordinary gifts as well as for the magnified Gift that comes with knowing Jesus. A “sacrifice of praise” is about gathering together and taking the time to thank our Father for the daily and seasonal blessings.
“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.” – Psalm 105:1-2
Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Please guide us to be genuinely thankful people this Thanksgiving, 2022. We really do have a lot to be thankful for.
