Dan Calabrese

Thanksgiving is the best holiday we have, largely because it has strayed the least from its original intent. Most of us do, indeed, give thanks on Thanksgiving. More than than, most of us actually do give thanks to God.

Did he ever.

And we should. We give thanks for our abundance, for our liberty, for the boundless opportunity of our nation and for the relative peace in which we live almost all the time.

But as appropriate as it is to give thanks for all this, I’m not sure we quite get to the heart of the matter when it comes to thanking God for America.

The stuff we have, the relatively easy life we enjoy – even our liberty – all this is really just part of the picture. Throughout human history, people have gone along with all kinds of tyranny, oppresion and bloodshed – and our Creator has mostly allowed us to do so.

He intervenes mercifully at moments of his choosing – and we should be exceedingly grateful for that – but ours is a fallen world because of choices we have made. It is no surprise that we suffer the consequences, and no reasonable person can expect God to spare us from 100 percent of them.

But for those who believe the Bible is the Word of God – and I am one – the unfolding of history has been part of a plan God laid out before us long ago. Christ came to reconcile us to him – to conquer both sin and death – and to become the firstborn among the dead.

When he finally ascended into Heaven, he promised his disciples he was going to prepare a place for us, and that he would come back to get us and take us to be with the Father. Ever since that day, humanity has been in preparation for our eternal reunion with God – for the day when he would fulfill his promise to live and walk among us, and we would be his people and he would be our God.

Biblical prophecy also tells us that God anticipated the widespread hostility toward his people Israel during the last days, and leaves no doubt that her enemies are in for a serious whooping when the final battle commences.

To my reading, Scripture makes no reference to future events that can be reasonably read to reference America. Perhaps someone will claim to have found one, but it is not apparent to me.

It is reasonable, however, to believe that if Israel’s enemies are in line for destruction, then God would also look with great favor upon a nation that defends her – especially because we share the same commitment to freedom and human rights.

When the colonists joined with their newfound Indian brethren to thank God during the vaunted first Thanksgiving, I suspect they understood they were giving thanks for more than just material abundance, or even freedom itself. They were present at the beginning of one of God’s greatest creations – a nation that, ironically, would force no one to worship him, but would foster an environment through the love of freedom in which more people than anywhere else in the world would willingly seek to do so.

And while they could not have known at the time how geopolitical realities would unfold vis-a-vis the Middle East in the 20th and 21st centuries, they may indeed have had some inkling that they were present at the founding of a truly extraordinary nation – one that would play a critical role in God’s larger plan for the ultimate fulfillment of mankind.

Most Christians talk in terms of going to Heaven when we die. But the Bible says nothing of the sort. What it says is that, upon Christ’s return, the dead will rise from the graves with new bodies, and will rise (followed by the living faithful) to meet Christ in the air.

To go where?

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21: 2-4)

The holy city, or New Jerusalem, is much bigger than the Jerusalem we know. Revelation says it measured “12,000 stadia,” which would be the equivalent of about 1,400 miles. I can’t help but notice how similar in size that is to the continental United States.

Of course, since the passage also talks of a new Heaven and a new Earth, it’s safe to say God’s not planning to simply plop his city of gold down on top of America. But God tends to make things in his image, and perhaps he makes the nations he most favors in the image of what he considers the ideal.

This is all speculation. But one thing we can say for sure is that the world has never seen a nation that combined both power and benevolence like America does, nor has the nation of Israel ever had such a faithful ally or protector.

We need to thank God today for more than just America’s bounty. We need to thank him for the honor of having such an important role in the greatest plan the world has ever seen. This is, without a doubt, the greatest blessing God has given our nation.

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