My Wife the Energizer Bunny has graciously consented to feed nineteen people tomorrow. As Lord of the Manor, I'll say something about Thanksgiving as a prelude to grace. This year I wondered what sort of reflections the Puritans would have offered at the first Thanksgiving. I Googled around for a while, but didn't find anything that struck me. So I've decided to confect something that I think a Puritan would appreciate, should any Puritans be among tomorrow's cloud of witnesses:
"Sailing to the the New World in 1620, in a New Ark, the Puritans believed they were establishing a New Israel in a New Canaan. They were a new tribe of Chosen People headed for a new Promised Land. Given how they understood themselves through the Old Testament, I wondered what a Puritan might have said at the first Thanksgiving: something that would be particularly appropriate on that occasion, but would also have meaning in a modern context. And I thought of Psalm 128, which I now paraphrase:
"You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands & all shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. May you live to see your children's children in a happy Jerusalem. How blessed are those who walk in the ways of the Lord!"
And then we'll say grace and eat.
* Mayflower by Mike Haywood
"Sailing to the the New World in 1620, in a New Ark, the Puritans believed they were establishing a New Israel in a New Canaan. They were a new tribe of Chosen People headed for a new Promised Land. Given how they understood themselves through the Old Testament, I wondered what a Puritan might have said at the first Thanksgiving: something that would be particularly appropriate on that occasion, but would also have meaning in a modern context. And I thought of Psalm 128, which I now paraphrase:
"You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands & all shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. May you live to see your children's children in a happy Jerusalem. How blessed are those who walk in the ways of the Lord!"
And then we'll say grace and eat.
* Mayflower by Mike Haywood
3 comments:
This is a lovely reflections. That psalm verse is one of my favorites.
Very suitable. So are you going to post what you will say this year?
"So are you going to post what you will say this year?"
I will if I think of something.
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