Americans are about to observe Thanksgiving, one of our most important holidays. It's also a time we share a spiritual relationship with family and friends who recognize God as the giver of freedom. Gratitude may be the most overlooked of virtues but blessings are appreciated most when they are threatened.

Imagine what this new continent must have looked like to those who saw it for the first time after being confined in a small ship for nearly three months. "The land often announced itself with a heavy scent miles out into the ocean" writes Frederick Turner. "Giovanni di Verrazano in 1524 smelled the cedars of the East Coast a hundred leagues out. The men of Henry Hudson's Half Moon were temporarily disarmed by the fragrance of the New Jersey shore, while ships running farther up the coast occasionally swam through large beds of floating flowers. Wherever they came inland they found a rich riot of color and sound, of game and luxuriant vegetation."

The Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Colony must have thought they had found the Garden of Eden. Their gratitude was not diminished by the hardships. One of the first items of business was the creation of the Mayflower Compact which reads in part:

"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic..."

With few provisions and ill prepared for the harsh New England cold only about half of the group survived the first winter. H. U. Westermayer wrote, "The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."

Cicero says that "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." The Pilgrims believed the Christian God brought them to this land and they were eager to express their gratefulness to Him. Political correctness was not a passenger on the Mayflower.

It is more than a little ironic that the news this week carried a story that visitors to the nation's Capitol noticed that a display had been altered. The capstone of the Washington Monument has the words "Laus Deo," Latin for "Praise be to God" etched on the East side. Officials had removed the words from a display, changed a descriptive plaque to remove the words and any other reference to God, and turned a replica of the monument so visitors could not see that part of the capstone.

Thanks to an e-mail campaign by outraged Americans, the references to God on the displays have now been restored. But the incident serves as a reminder of the near-constant threat of anti-religious bigotry in America.

At the same time courts in nine Western states have ruled it constitutional for public schools to require a three-week course on the Islamic faith. Such courses require all junior-high students to pretend they are Muslims and offer prayers to Allah.

Things like this show how out of touch the government elite are on religion and so many other issues. Who could have envisioned a time when Christians in America would be denied the same privilege the founding Pilgrims risked their lives to escape the clutches of King George III to enjoy? Yet the nation whose roots extend into the Mayflower Compact signed by 41 valiant men seems to be moving inexorably in that direction.

As we gather to worship God this Sabbath let us lead in giving thanks to God for the privilege of freedom. It is after all, the freedom to worship Him that is the most basic of all freedoms.

Until next time,