Epaggelia

George Washington said in the first Presidential Proclamation of Thanksgiving (1789) “…that we may all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country…; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpretations of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;…and in general for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.” It was shortly after the Thanksgiving Proclamation was written, that it was lost for 130 years. The original document was written in long hand by William Jackson, secretary to the President, and was then signed by George Washington. It was probably misplaced in with some private papers when the U.S. capitol moved from New York to Washington, D.C. The original manuscript was not placed in the National Archives until 1921 when Dr. J.C. Fitzpatrick, assistant chief of the manuscripts division of the Library of Congress, found the proclamation at an auction sale being held at an art gallery in New York. He purchased the document for $300 for the Library of Congress, in which it now resides. Today many of our citizens will not celebrate Thanksgiving because they choose not to be thankful. They don’t even know who to be thankful towards! But there will be people who will serve The Occupy Wall Street protestors with food and supplies. They are thankful because they serve. My question is: Are the Protestors thankful? They claim they are the “99 percent,” but they have a very narrow vision of the world in which they live. The truth is: they are the “wealthy one percent!”. According to the World Monetary Fund, the average yearly income per person in the USA is $46,860. There are at least 100 Nations in this same world in which we live, where the average person earns less than $10,000. The Congo averages just $329 per year. Surely the Occupy protestors are in the one percent of which they object in this world! I once had a missionary friend from India mistakenly believe I was a millionaire because I have a three-bedroom home in the suburbs. And he couldn’t comprehend that I have two vehicles. I try to explain that they’re both over 7 years old, but that’s “new” there! For those of you who say “well that is India, if it wasn’t for the spirit of protest, we wouldn’t be where we are today in the USA”. My question for you is this: Are you really thankful? If so, how much? Enough to serve Him, from whom all blessings flow?