I can’t help but notice that Thanksgiving is sometimes called “Turkey Day.” A friend might say, “Have a good Turkey Day!” On a national broadcast the meteorologist said, “The weather for Turkey Day is going to be such and such.”
Allow me to register my meager protest. Today is not Turkey Day. It is Thanksgiving Day. We might eat turkey on this day, but the day was commemorated as a national day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.
President George Washington first proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789. In 1863 President Lincoln officially proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be "National Thanksgiving Day."
Read the proclamation message of President Washington and President Lincoln in the history books or on the Internet and it is easy to see that the intention of these great leaders was to point the eyes of the nation to our Creator.
That was important then. It is very important now, especially during this time in our nation’s history. This Thanksgiving, in addition to spending time with family and friends and watching football and eating turkey, I am going to spend some time in prayer, thanking God for His goodness and for a thousand daily blessings of life. It’s not Turkey Day, but Thanksgiving!