The word thanksgiving appears first in your Bible in Leviticus 7:12 and last appears in Revelation 7:12. The Old Testament Hebrew word means to offer God praise for a sacrifice! The New Testament word thanksgiving in the Greek means to receive something as an expression of grace and accept it as one who does not deserve it. Both words point to the same thing! God made a sacrifice for us we do not deserve! We praise God because his love for us initiated the sacrifice! In the American Revolution George Washington proclaimed a day of official public thanksgiving and prayer! However it was not until October 3, 1863 that Abraham Lincoln officially codified Thanksgiving a holiday to be celebrated every year after the Union Army victory at Gettysburg! In the three days of battle at Gettysburg there were 7058 casualties! There were 33264 troops wounded and 10790 troops missing in action! At field hospitals around Gettysburg there were piles of amputated limbs that were buried together! Churches were pressed into service as hospitals! Lydia Smith, a black woman used what little money she had to hire a wagon and horses to gather donated goods delivered to both wounded Union and Confederate Troops! Elizabeth Thorn, wife of the owner of the largest cemetery in the area was pregnant yet she dug over a hundred graves herself! The list of hero’s is too long for room here! America became united that day because of sacrifices made! God unites us together today because of the sacrifice he made on a Cross for us in six hours of suffering! Our Civil War took over six hundred thousand casualties and millions more of our military who were willing to sacrifice for us in wars all over the globe! Is it too hard for us to sacrifice Sunday in worship to our King? The Kingdom of God is a sacrificial system! But it was the sacrifice of God himself for us that made redemption possible for all! One sacrifice for all and many sacrifices for one! America can never be united without a common sacrifice! After Gettysburg America became one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all! Until America returns to our common sacrifice the guns will keep blazing away in our streets divided instead of united! God Bless America! I thank God for America! James & Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com