saturdayeveningpost.com
Several years ago, I attended a very special church service
on the night before Thanksgiving. As we entered the sanctuary, the lights were
turned off. Each person received a plastic bag that contained five kernels of
corn.
The pastor went to the front of the sanctuary and told us the legend of the Five Kernels of Corn.
The legend goes that in 1623, two years after the first Thanksgiving, there was a drought which led to a famine for the pilgrims. William Bradford was the leader of the colony. He said their situation was similar to the Romans who were said to survive on a ration of five kernels of corn. They were not entirely without food, but were slowly starving our to the lack of grain. Bradford said that they would have considered five kernels of corn (or maize) as good as a feast! From then on, the legend says that they celebrated Thanksgiving by beginning their fest with five kernels of corn on their plate.
Then he lit a candle, a
taper that was in a tall wooden holder. We passed it around and each person was
asked to tell five things they were thankful for.
- The first kernel reminds us of the Autumn beauty all around us.
- The second kernel reminds us of our love for one another.
- The third kernel reminds us of God’s love and care for us.
- The fourth kernel reminds us of all our many friends.
- The fifth kernel reminds us of that we are a free people. (teachbesideme.com)
I chose to use that as my lesson I gave at our women’s
circle meeting earlier this month.
In preparing for the lesson, I found a poem written by Hezekiah Butterworth, Five Kernels of Corn
I also created small plastic bags that contained five kernels of corn. I set one
bag at each place on the tables. To make them a bit decorative, I stapled an
orange ribbon around each of them.
Two of my friends used the information I researched,
incorporating it into Sunday school lessons and children’s messages.
We should be thankful for all God has given us. My third-grade
teacher talked to us about Thanksgiving being a day set aside to give thanks
for what we have, even if it’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (This thought
came back to me a few years ago.)
I have decided to take a blog break until December 7th. I
must really get serious about some issues that seem to affect me.
I pray all of you will have a blessed Thanksgiving.
This was very interesting, Cecelia. I've never heard this story before and I love it. Thank you for sharing it with us. I may have to save this one for future reference. I am sorry you are having some issues, and I pray all will be well with you as you take this time off to deal with whatever it may be. I will be saying a little prayer for you in the meantime. Have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend with your family.
ReplyDeletePam: I am glad you found this story interesting. For me, it highlights the fact that we take for granted a lot of what we have. The weather up here has turned Novemberish. I have a hair appointment tomorrow afternoon; other than that, I plan to stay in until Sunday. Peace and blessings to you and yours.
ReplyDeleteI had a hair appt. today too. Got a much needed haircut! It's been very "novemberish" here too. Cold day, but sunny and bright. Take care my friend, and stay warm!
ReplyDeleteI combined my trip to the beauty salon with dropping off some special sweaters at the dry cleaners. It is still Novemberish weather. We had rather high winds these past few evenings.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog post Cecelia, what a great story. I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteMarja: Actually, one could say we had two Thanksgivings. We fixed ham slices and had the usual trimmings that one thinks of for Thanksgiving on Thursday, just Jim and me. On Saturday, Roger, our son, came home and we had a Turkey breast and the usual trimmings. Roger lives 100 miles south of us. He got invited to the home of some friends of ours down there. (Jim grew up in that area. And we still have contact with some of them. (He moved from there 60 years ago.) Yes, we had a nice couple of Thanksgivings.
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