Unity of purpose. Humility before God. Gratitude for what we have been given.

Giving thanks.

We are called to give thanks for our great, blessed, albeit imperfect nation. I join Washington, Lincoln, and others in giving my thanks to God.

No, this isn’t a history lesson. Nor is my purpose to ask you to ignore the realities of American society today. But, yes, it is a call to remember why we celebrate. And it is a call to remind us that not even Washington or Lincoln believed that our nation or Americans were perfect, but rather that we had done much good and, while more work was needed, we should pause to recognize the unique blessings given to America, and Americans. 

As we gather this Thanksgiving, at a moment in time unique to our history, despite the divisive elections, culture battles and so many trying so hard to pull us apart and tear down the pillars that uphold our nation, there is all the more reason for us to pause and think why we are called as Americans to give thanks. To strengthen those pillars. And to ask for blessings to pull us together.

Proclaiming the first “day of thanksgiving,” Washington explained why Americans ought to be thankful: “That we may then 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 great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed — for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness.”

The people of these new United States had gone through a revolutionary war and were already living with their second constitution enacted in less than a decade. Yet, Washington — a figure larger than life — urged his fellow citizens to be thankful and to offer their gratitude. Surprising to us in 2024, Washington writes of the nation’s “tranquility” and their “plenty” — and all they had.

While many of Washington’s successors issued similar proclamations, it was not until our sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln, that the day became a national holiday. A man of so many gifts and talents calling us to our better angels, wrote: “…with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens…[to] observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens…with humble penitence…to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

Two Presidents, nearly a century apart. Common themes: gratitude, humility, unity. Three things that are all too often lacking today.

Thanksgiving is a day that calls us to pause, reflect, and recall that we are all Americans. And, yes, this is very different from being French, Mexican or British. America was built on ideals, a promise, and a spirit.

We are still a relatively new nation that has achieved so much and has been blessed with so much. We are a nation with unique powers and “plenty,” that all too often takes the plenty for granted, or misses these gifts. We are a nation of enormous power and, with that, responsibility.

Washington and Lincoln did not create this holiday to “spike the football” or to thump our chests. They did not create it to celebrate our perfection. They did not create it ignorant of the challenges in front of them — Lincoln was presiding over a nation literally in a civil war!

They called us to our better angels. Knowing — even in 1789, and again in 1863 — that this nation had been given so much. Our laws, our customs, and our spirit were gifts that many had used to do so much good, so we should pause and celebrate. 

Most of my relatives did not come to this nation until the 20th century. The same is true for my wife. They came here to start anew in this nation — this blessed, albeit imperfect, nation. They came to be part of the American experience. To not only share in the blessings, but to actively embrace it and share it and to continue those blessings.

Our first president — who had friends and family who died in battle, from disease and even starvation on the battlefield — called us to give thanks to God for the opportunity given.

Our sixteenth president felt so strongly in that Washingtonian spirit that he wanted his successors and the generations that followed to pause to give thanks for the good done and to ask for blessings to finish the work that needed to still be done. He wrote this against the backdrop of the scourge of slavery and the bloodshed of brother versus brother.

They knew the blessings and the opportunities before us.

We, as Americans, are called to give thanks.

Guy Ciarrocchi is the “head chef” for his Thanksgiving dinner and Senior Fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation. He writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy.