This summer of 2012 was exceptionally dry for much of the United States including our town. I have prayed many times for rain and I’m not alone in that request. But it was interesting to listen to what people were saying when the guaranteed deliverance of rain began to come near in the form of a tropical storm named Isaac. Mixed gratitude was what I heard, words like, “I hope it doesn’t rain too hard,” or “It took me forever to get there in this terrible weather.”
Which reminded me of another time in America when there wasn’t rain. Though there have been many this one occurred in our beginnings and the response when rain came was pure gratitude. It was in 1621 or 22. Those early Americans had barely survived a harsh winter, had planted crops to sustain them in the next winter to come when the rain stopped.
Though it is a little known story in our history it is an important one in the Mayflower beginnings of our country for it laid another stone in the solid foundation being built, this one called gratitude. You can read about that drought and other long forgotten experiences in the book, Thanksgiving, A Time To Remember.
It’s been a tradition in our family to read this book out loud on Thanksgiving Day for almost 20 years. Because I learned what pure gratitude looks like from these men and women I am determined to follow their example and not complain when God gives rain no matter when He gives it and in what way it comes.
Click here or the image below to purchase “Thanksgiving, A Time to Remember”
