The true heart of Thanksgiving: Giving thanks to God!

As Thanksgiving 2025 arrives, one could look at the economy and other things and wonder what there is to be thankful for. Yet, to an Ole Seagull and he hopes you, too, Thanksgiving remains a special day for giving thanks to God for the blessings we have, the blessings we’ve had, and for the hope that they will continue into the future for our country and the people we love.

Common sense suggests that a holiday called “Thanksgiving Day” should be about “giving thanks.” After all, who says “thank you” to no one? We give thanks to someone for a reason.

Just as some would take “Christ” out of Christmas, there are those who would take the “thanks” out of Thanksgiving. This raises the question: to whom are we giving thanks? The earliest days of American history show that the roots of our modern Thanksgiving were firmly planted in giving thanks to God.

From Coronado’s 1541 ceremony in Palo Duro Canyon to the Puritan Thanksgivings of the 1600s in New England, the purpose was to acknowledge God for blessings given.

The official proclamations establishing Thanksgiving confirm its spiritual foundation. One of the first, issued in 1676 by the Governing Council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, called for “a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favor….”

A century later, on December 18, 1777, following the defeat of the British at Saratoga, the Continental Congress recommended a day for “the good people [to] express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that, together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings they may join the penitent confession of their sins; and supplications for such further blessings as they stand in need of.”

George Washington, our nation’s first president, continued this tradition. In his Thanksgiving Proclamation of November 16, 1789, he stated it was “the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” He issued the proclamation at the request of Congress to give thanks for the ability to “peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Abraham Lincoln, in his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation, may have said it best: “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens…to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

Especially, at this time in history, it feels right to pause and give “Thanks” to Almighty God for the many blessings bestowed upon this country and its people. As Lincoln so eloquently stated, “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God.”