Have you ever wondered how the Pilgrims must have felt when they first placed their feet on the new world? Goosebumps must have been in their heyday not to mention the looks of awe and wonder spilling out from all those people who were cramped onto a boat for months.
After months of being coped up, the feeling of freedom must have rung out loud and clear. Thanksgiving and praise must have been a sweet sound echoing out to a God who was faithful to see them safely to the new world. The moment of pure joy as the realization of a life changing, history making event taking place must have been awesome.
I wish I had payed more attention in history class but I'm sadden to say, history wasn't on the top of my priority list so I had to go back and find out what a Pilgrim was. According to the dictionary, a Pilgrim is a person who is on a journey to a holy place.
After seeing the definition, I step back and asked myself if I was a pilgrim in today's world. At first I didn't think so. No where around me was a holy place and there was no new world for me to discover but as time went by, I began to see the importance of where God has placed me.
I was blessed to be given land of my own when my dad died and my husband and I began to put down roots. Over the years our land has changed; some for good and some not so good but here recently, I began to see my land as bring holy and belonging to God. Once I put value on my land, I began seeing it through the eyes of God and not man. He began to show me this was how He viewed America.
America is His land. He designed it, created it, and built a foundation of Godly principles on it. He blessed America with His very breath. No other land has more value, beautiful scenery, and unique features like America has.
But over the years since the first Pilgrims step foot on it, the land has begun to cry out. One has to admit, this land has been through so much from the Native American massacres, to the waste filling our waters, to the trash piling up on the highways and byways.
I am not going to get into the wrongs of this nation, take political sides, or even make this article about my views of what needs to be changed. My hope and prayer is you hear my heart and we return to the foundations of what the Pilgrims stood for. We need to see every parcel, every stretch of highway, and everything in between as valuable and dear to the One who created it.
Truly, God shed His blood for this land, put a blessing on it, and put faith in the people who would walk on it to keep it from crying out. My heart is heavy where the land is concerned, no longer is it a holy place but it has become a land where people just throw their trash where ever they might be because they are to busy or uncaring to be concerned with their actions.
Bees are disappearing, animals are dying, and the rocks are beginning to rumble. My hope and prayer is that we, being the privilege people we are who is called by His name, will humble ourselves and begin to pray, and will seek His face, and will turn from our wicked ways so God will hear from heaven, and will forgive our sin, and heal our land.
So as Thanksgiving approaches, my prayer is for new modern pilgrims to begin to rise up and begin a journey to make this land a holy one just one more time.
