It’s Thanksgiving today, and as families around America gather to partake of thanksgiving feasts and thank God for His many manifold blessings, it’s important that we have a proper perspective in order that we may be truly thankful.
Most Americans have heard the story of the Pilgrim settlers and the sacrifices they made to establish western civilization in New England. Many only know a few details, however, and do not understand or appreciate the full depths of their suffering, sacrifice, and most importantly, their thankfulness to God for His blessings.
They arrived to Plymouth at the onset of winter, barely able to construct crude shelters to protect them from the brutal New England winter. Disease and death were their constant companion – 45 of the 102 Pilgrim settlers died that first winter.
Their situation was desperate, and God was kind to send them help in the form of Squanto, a Patuxent Indian who spoke English and taught them how to grow crops and harvest fish and game from the wilderness. The abundance of the harvest is what led to the first Thanksgiving.
But not long after that first Thanksgiving in 1621, the extraordinarily harsh winter of 1621-22 descended upon them. Their supplies ran low, requiring them to ration food. Their leader, William Bradford, instituted food rationing in order to enable them to last through the winter until more food could be procured in the spring.
Their ration?
Five kernels of corn. Per day.
And yet still they were thankful to God their provider.
This poem artfully communicates the depths of the Pilgrims’ humble gratefulness, and is instructive to us on how thankful we should be (especially in our current days of such abundant provision and ease).
Five Kernels of Corn
By Hezekiah Butterworth
‘Twas the year of the famine in Plymouth of old,
The ice and the snow from the thatched roofs had rolled;
Through the warm purple skies steered the geese o’er the seas,
And the woodpeckers tapped in the clocks of the trees;
And the boughs on the slopes to the south winds lay bare,
and dreaming of summer, the buds swelled in the air.
The pale Pilgrims welcomed each reddening morn;
There were left but for rations Five Kernels of Corn.
Five Kernels of Corn!
Five Kernels of Corn!
But to Bradford a feast were Five Kernels of Corn!
“Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
Ye people, be glad for Five Kernels of Corn!”
So Bradford cried out on bleak Burial Hill,
And the thin women stood in their doors, white and still.
“Lo, the harbor of Plymouth rolls bright in the Spring,
The maples grow red, and the wood robins sing,
The west wind is blowing, and fading the snow,
And the pleasant pines sing, and arbutuses blow.
Five Kernels of Corn!
Five Kernels of Corn!
To each one be given Five Kernels of Corn!”
O Bradford of Austerfield hast on thy way,
The west winds are blowing o’er Provincetown Bay,
The white avens bloom, but the pine domes are chill,
And new graves have furrowed Precisioners’ Hill!
“Give thanks, all ye people, the warm skies have come,
The hilltops are sunny, and green grows the holm,
And the trumpets of winds, and the white March is gone,
Five Kernels of Corn!
I challenge you to honestly assess the great many blessings given you today, and that the Pilgrims’ example would inspire true humility in your life and a reverent thankfulness to God, from whom all blessings flow.
Thank you for your friendship and support for the Beyond Off Grid project!
Be a good steward of what you’ve been given and make it grow!
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