Thanksgiving Thoughts 2022

Transplanted seedlings we were once 
Or perhaps some started here 
In this valley verdant green
With rivers, mountains, trees and streams

Deserts near for those who would 
Leave this vale where they did start 
Planting new shoots far away
In climes calling to their hearts 

Yet our roots are intertwined 
No matter how far they have grown 
Not seas nor land nor death itself 
Have severed ties so deeply sown 

Such gratitude this thankful time 
Memories sweet and hard too
This treasured gift our heritage  
Plus blessed gift of life with you 

Like the spreading aspen grove 
Whose roots entwined grow far and wide 
Would our roots, our legacy 
Bring new growth, our best abide

May the Love that has upheld 
Good we’ve known along the way 
Guard and keep dear family, friends
Now, tomorrow, every day 

~~~

“Now thank we all our God
With heart and hand and voices…” 

~~~

The hymn “Now thank we all our God” was written in 1636 by Martin Rinkart, later translated by Catherine Winkworth:
 
1 Now thank we all our God
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

2 O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
to keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
of this world in the next.

3 All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son and Spirit blest,
who reign in highest heaven
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore. 
(Psalter Hymnal (Gray), 1987)

Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was the Bishop of Eilenberg, Germany during the Thirty Years' War. Since Eilenberg was a walled city it became a place of refuge for fugitives of the war, and also a place of famine and disease due to overcrowding. In 1637 at the height of their misery, Rinkart was the only clergyman left in the city who could perform the 40 or 50 necessary burial services daily -- one of which was for his wife. As if that weren't enough, the city was sacked three times by invaders, one of which imposed a large tribute payment upon the people. During this time, Rinkart managed to find the time to write 7 dramas and 66 hymns.
The hymn "Nun danket alle Gott" was originally titled "Tisch-Gebetlein," or a "little prayer before the meal." This humble prayer of thanksgiving is laid out simply and beautifully in the first verse, but it's the next two verses that expand the hymn's focus and have given it its lasting appeal. You can see the Thirty Years' War pressing on his mind in verse two:
And keep us in His grace, And guide us when perplexed, And free us from all ills In this world and the next.
After a verse of thanks, and a verse that asks for strength during the trials of life, he ends with a paraphrase of the doxology as if to say, "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, may the name of the Lord be praised." --Greg Scheer, 1995

Notes and hymn copied from https://hymnary.org/text/now_thank_we_all_our_god