A THANKSGIVING TRADITION

For the Rainey family, Thanksgiving was not going to be just eating, football and leftover turkey sandwiches—followed by a stress-filled Friday of frantic Christmas shopping at the mall.

Having majored in history in college, I was determined that my children would hear the stories of the courageous men, women and children who lived honorably and, through faith in God, made enormous sacrifices to secure freedom for us all. I wanted them to understand God's sovereignty at work in the lives of our forefathers and His providential direction of their circumstances.

With my husband's help, I initiated some new traditions into our Thanksgiving Day. On Thanksgiving morning, everyone's place at the table is set with five kernels of corn and a card and a pen.

The kernels of corn hark back to 1621 during one of the first brutal winters that the Pilgrims endured in the New World. Sickness was rampant, and food rations were prescribed to survive the winter. Tradition has it that at one point the food stores were so low that everyone was forced to a daily ration of only five kernels of corn.

At the height of their need, God provided deliverance. A ship from England sailed into their harbor. The captain offered trading goods in exchange for beaver pelts, which the Pilgrims used to barter for more corn with the Indians, and thus survive the winter.

For our family, the kernels at each place setting are a visual reminder of the meager rations the Pilgrims lived on, and the sacrifice they made for us. We pass a small basket around the table, and as everyone puts a kernel of corn in the basket, each shares one Thanksgiving blessing. The basket goes around the table five times. We then hold hands and offer a prayer of gratitude to God for His abundant blessings and for the ways we have seen Him at work in our lives.

Eventually, we started having our children write down the things for which they were thankful, on notebook paper or whatever I could find that was handy. But my point was to teach them to reflect and be grateful.

"Remembering our dependence on past mercies kindles gratitude," writes John Piper in his book A Godward Life. "If we do not believe that we are deeply dependent on God for all we have or hope to have, then the very spring of gratitude and faith runs dry."

Our family's sharing on Thanksgiving morning has become one of our highlights of the year. I did keep a few of the lists shared at the table, and now I wish I'd kept them all. In 1993, I finally began to make it a point to have everyone record a list of five blessings on a notecard, after we read the Pilgrim story. We've been faithful to our Thanksgiving Day tradition ever since. Reviewing what God has done in our lives is healthy, and it is biblical.

Psalm 105:5 tells us to "remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth." By contrast, Psalm 106 tells us what happens when we, as God's people, don't remember what He has done. It says of Israel: "They did not remember Thine abundant kindnesses. . . . They forgot His works. . . . They forgot God their Savior. . . . They did not believe in His Word, but grumbled in their tents."

As believers in Christ, we have so much to be thankful for, and, as Americans, we have experienced God's abundant blessings on our nation. Decide what will work best for you; my advice is to keep it as simple as possible. The point is to build a tradition of remembering the past, recognizing God's hand in our history, and expressing gratitude to Him for His goodness.

This national observance of Thanks-giving is unique. Both distinctly Christian and exclusively American, it is a holiday for celebrating faith, family and freedom. May we resolve to be a grateful people in this nation, and may we not forget what God has done and what those who have gone before have sacrificed for us.

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