Our Thankful Hearts

A meaning of Thanksgiving

Our Thankful Hearts

“Momma, Momma, where are you?”  Aaron bellowed through the front door.  At six years old he was a small, thin boy, but had a voice loud enough so that the cows out in the lower pasture could hear him.  

“Darling I’m in here.”  Lydia called from the pantry. 

Aaron burst into the pantry breathing hard.  “Momma, our teacher was telling us about something called Thanksgiving.  We’re suppose to be Thankful for the vegetables and the animals that God has given us, Momma why don’t we ever have Thanksgiving?”  Aaron asked his mother as she was bringing potatoes and carrots out into the kitchen. 

“Aaron, I don’t rightly know about any Thanksgiving.  We always thank the Lord for our meals.  Why should we have a special day for that?”  Lydia asked her youngest child.

“Well, Miss McTavish said that the first people who settled in our country had a feast to celebrate the good harvest.  All the town came together to cook, hunt and fish.  She said that we all should be having a feast on Thanksgiving also.”  Aaron told his mother. 

“Well, at dinner we can discuss this with your father and then he will make his decision.”  Momma told Aaron.  Lydia now turned her back on Aaron to peel her potatoes.  Aaron sat at the kitchen table with some milk and bread. 

A tall, thin girl of nine walked into the kitchen, her braid.  “Momma, would you like some help?”  She asked her mother with softness in her voice.

“Yes Cora, that would be lovely thank you.”  Her mother told her.  Cora did not go to school, she was needed at home.  Her brother needed to learn enough schooling to be able to run the farm one day.  Their father said that he should go and prepare himself to improve the farm before he should receive it. 

Suddenly Aaron jumped out of his seat. 

“Momma, Momma, Momma.”  He shouted as he ran to his mother’s side and pulled at her apron. 

“What child?”  Momma asked him.

“Momma, I just thought that our town should have a Thanksgiving like the first Thanksgiving.”  He explained.

“That would be wonderful, except it is a lot of work and we don’t have any extra time.”  His mother told him.

“What if I get it together?  Would that be alright?”  He asked.

“Well, you need to ask your father tonight.”  She told him.

“Yes, Momma,” he said a little down cast.

That night at supper Aaron asked his father, “Father, could we ask the whole town to have Thanksgiving together?”

“What is Thanksgiving Aaron?”  Robert asked his son.  Aaron went about explaining Thanksgiving to his father. 

“Aaron we don’t have any spare time.  Your Momma and I are about at the end of what we can give.”  Aaron’s father told him.

“What if I do all the gathering of the  people?”  Aaron asked his father.

“Well, if you want to put your heart in it then we will follow through with it.”  Aaron’s father gave his permission.  Saturday lie ahead of Aaron and so that night he made his plans to visit as many people as he could.

Saturday came bright and shiny and Aaron did too.  With the excitement of a six year old he had breakfast and asked his father if he could have his sister and the pony to invite the town to Thanksgiving.  His father said he could and off they went two children and a pony. 

Door to door the little party passionately went on finishing the job at hand.  When all the houses had been invited and the children had finally arrived home Momma was on the little porch watching for them.

“How did it go?”  Momma asked.

“Splendid,” Cora said.

 “We went all over town, even to the farms out beyond the field.”  Aaron told his mother.

“Well, no wonder it took you all day.  I was getting quite worried about you.”  Lydia told them.

“Sorry Momma, but I was determined.”  He said.

“When a job needs to be done, you just need to do it.”  His mother said.

The days went by and visitors started coming to the house.  First the preacher brought some preserves, then the teacher brought some pickles, one neighbor brought some butter and another brought three loaves of bread.  Dried meats started showing up, vegetables and someone even brought some herbs to the house. 

Two days before Thanksgiving one farmer brought half a ham, Lydia was just flabbergasted by this delivery.  She started cooking it at once.  The kitchen started to resemble the pantry and the pantry was beginning to flow out into the kitchen.  Food was everywhere and it was easy to see God’s hands in this gathering. 

The morning of Thanksgiving the children were almost too excited to wait.  So much food made their mouths water continuously.   At 8:00 AM sharp the preacher and his wife showed up.  Smiles met them in the yard as the whole family went out to greet their first visitors.

“Many hands make light work.”  Preacher Allison told Robert and Lydia.  They all walked into the house and continued to prepare the meal. 

The barn was cleared of animals for the day.  Father had cleaned and tidied it.  Boards were brought in to make tables.  More guests arrived carrying more and more gifts of bounty.  Fifty people were there by 11:00 and more were arriving. 

At noon Preacher Allison called attention and all was silent. 

“The first settlers thanked God for the wonderful bounty as we are doing today.  But every day we thank the Lord for our meals.  I don’t believe that we have been thankful enough for the rest of our lives.  One little boy has brought a town together to be thankful.  We believe we should only be thankful for food, but we forget how many blessings the Lord has given us every day.  We need to be thankful to God all the time, not just at Thanksgiving.”

“Amen.”

Reviews

[sette]

this is a poignant story and with what a six year old boy did is an eye opener for the adults and there is nothing better than to be grateful for all the blessings poured on us.