A Small Thanksgiving Beginning
Back in 2002, we Notgrasses were trying to find our place in the world of homeschool curriculum. We began publishing little 8 1/2″ by 5 1/2″ 20-page booklets which we folded and stapled by hand. Most were about current events. We published one per month and called the series In the News. Many of the topics that were in the news back then are still in the news today, as seen in this list of some of our titles: China, Elections, Immigration, Iran, Iraq, Korea, and The Quest for Peace in the Middle East.
We also published a little booklet called Why We Celebrate Thanksgiving. As you prepare for your own Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow, I thought you might enjoy reading this page from Why We Celebrate Thanksgiving to your young children.
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How God Gives Us Thanksgiving Dinner
A modern Thanksgiving dinner might include foods like these: turkey, stuffing (or the Southern version called dressing), rolls, cranberries, green beans, sweet potatoes or yams, cornbread, sweetened iced tea, and pumpkin pie. How does God give us this wonderful blessing?
On the first day of Creation, God made light. Light lets us see how to prepare the meal and see our loved ones around the table. This light He made on day one includes energy. We use lots of energy to cook that great meal.
On the second day, God made the sky. Water from the sky comes down as rain that helps our food to grow.
On the third day of creation, God created plants like cranberries that grow in bogs, . . .
Bobby Bennett works at one of the
Freetown Farm Bogs harvesting locations,
where cranberries are first gathered
by booms in this bog near Freetown, Massachusetts.
Courtesy of the Carol M. Highsmith’s America
Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive
in the Library of Congress
. . . green beans and pumpkins that grow on vines in gardens, tea from Asia, sugar cane for sweetening, wheat for rolls and pie crust, sweet potatoes and onions that grow underground, and corn for our cornbread. He also made the dry ground appear on the third day. That’s why we have a place for fruits and vegetables to grow. On the third day, He put the water in special places. We use that water to cook our vegetables, to make the tea, and to wash all those Thanksgiving dishes.
On the fourth day, God created the sun to shine on plants and makes them grow.
On the fifth day of creation, God made birds. Wild turkeys live off the plants God created, and some farmers raise tame turkeys. That’s why we can have turkey for Thanksgiving and also chicken eggs to go in our dressing and our pumpkin pie.
On the sixth day, God made people in His image. He made people who want to thank Him for His blessings. Because we are made in His image, we can figure out how to take those things He has made and make a yummy Thanksgiving dinner.
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And my God will supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Now to our God and Father
be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Philippians 4:19
You and your family are in my prayers this Thanksgiving.