Nun Danket Alle Gott

Martin Rinkart was a German Lutheran pastor during the Thirty Years War, a time marked not only by violent warfare but also famine and pestilence. As the only clergyperson to remain in his town of Eilenberg (one of the others had fled for their own safety and Rinkart buried the other two), it was his responsibility to bury the dead, and bury them he did. Sometimes, like in 1637, 40-50 funerals in one day. Fr. Martin conducted almost 4500 funerals, including that of his wife who died in May of that year.

In a time of unspeakable horror and devastation, Fr. Martin was able to sit down and write a prayer which endures to this very day, a favorite of many Lutherans around the world:

Now thank we all our God With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done, In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms, Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.

This day of National Thanksgiving, first recognized as such by Abraham Lincoln during a much similar time, is a day for me to remember significant events in my life that have happened on that day and give thanks. Not for turkey and all the trimmings but for relationships with which God has blessed me, relationships which began on this day in years past.

While we gather together, let us not forget all of those for whom this day will not be one of Thanksgiving but, perhaps, one of mere survival. Let us remember those for whom this is yet another day in a difficult life, a life which could be made better were we to try and make it so. By doing so, might we not be seen as truly thankful for what we have and who we are?