THE THANKSGIVING BRIDGE
Whatever else those early days meant for the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock, it meant learning to relate across vast cultural and linguistic divides. Sure they had been used to dealing with people not like themselves. They had already left England and spent time in the Netherlands trying to find some religious freedom. But the difference between Holland and England was negligible compared to what they would find in the New World. There they would come into contact with a people whose ancestors had come from exactly the opposite direction, from far across the steppes of Asia, the snowfields of Alaska and across the vast continent of North America. The pilgrims were white. The Native Americans were red or brown. The pilgrims had centuries of the Classical cultures and Christendom before them. The Native Americans had centuries of no written language and no previous civilizations. They were the first civilization, the first nations.
When these two communities met, in spite of all their differences, they met in peace. It was no Garden of Eden, but it was a beginning that built a bridge between them over which mutual help could flow. Help for basic things, like planting corn and pumpkins, hunting turkeys and building shelter against the winter. Without that peaceful bridge, the Pilgrims might not have survived and we wouldn’t be celebrating a fat Thanksgiving like we typically do each year.
So in our thankful hearts this year, we should certainly thank God first of all for his blessings. Second, we should give thanks for that bridge of trust those pilgrims and Native Americans built so long ago and how it has served us across the centuries.
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