{ Day 12-Thankful For Freedom}

With a husband in the military, it goes without saying that we are reminded on a daily basis what the cost of freedom is. With one deployment behind us, we know first hand the toll it can take on a family, but there are times when I wonder do we truly know the cost? My mind is brought back hundreds of years to a time and place where events unfolded to make a day we now celebrate.

How joyful that first Thanksgiving must have been. With nothing more than true faith, families left on boats they hoped would be able to carry them to a place they had only heard of. The destination may have been somewhat vague, but their purpose was not. The freedom they longed for, was within reach, and I imagine each day as they prayed that desire burned more brightly within each of them. Freedom from oppression, and freedom to pray and worship to a God they knew was hearing their prayers.

How hard that must have been, to travel in unknown territory, leaving the only place they had ever known as home, in search of a better. They knew about cost. The travel was treacherous, the food meager, accommodations anything but luxurious-yet in faith and hope they pressed on. I can only imagine the joy that must have filled their hearts when someone from up deck yelled the words they had waited months to hear. Land..We see land!!

I am sure the excitement soon passed in the coming weeks as the harsh reality of daily life set in. Would a life be able to be made? That same God that had so graciously led them to freedom, would surely not forsake them now. Hard work and valuable friendships with natives proved to be only the beginning.

As they bowed their heads with the utmost reverence that first Thanksgiving, I am sure they knew what the cost was. I am sure their prayers were more than merely trite recitings of their blessings..”Thanks for our home, our family, all our many blessings..” They had felt in their hearts the blessings poured out upon them through the hardest of times. They had felt the blessings of being able to build a new life..a free life. How blessed we are to celebrate that too.