USA (MNN) — Today, families and friends across the United States gather to celebrate Thanksgiving — a time to enjoy good food and reflect on God’s blessings over the past year. The holiday also commemorates when pilgrims in the US shared a feast with Wampanoag Native Americans in 1621, giving thanks to God for provision and community.
Hutchcraft Ministries partners with Native American Christians to reach Native youth with Gospel hope. Ron Hutchcraft of Hutchcraft Ministries shares a perspective often overlooked during this holiday.
Hutchcraft says, “If I am a Native American, I may have, at very best, mixed emotions about Thanksgiving in terms of the history that it was the first chapter of.”
Following this early chapter of shared gratitude, the history between Native Americans and European settlers turned tragic. Land was seized, treaties were broken, and generations of Native people suffered displacement, injustice, and grief.
“Now, as for the holiday, for most Native Americans, it is still a great family day,” says Hutchcraft. “It’s a day with food, [and] although there’s a lot of poverty, it’s great to enjoy the meal.”
Hutchcraft also highlights how the heart of Thanksgiving and spiritual gratitude are, in a way, inherent in Native culture.
“Long before the Pilgrims came, the spirit of Thanksgiving has been really part of their spirituality. So for them to come to a Thanksgiving feast that [was] like, ‘We are thankful to the Creator,’ it’s interesting that it was not a new concept at all.”
It opens Gospel doors to discuss the God of the Bible – the true Creator – and Jesus Christ who gave His life for the sins of all people.
Hutchcraft explains, “For believing Native Americans, they would see…that we today have so much to be thankful to our Creator for, to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.”
As you give thanks today, take time to pray for Native Americans, asking God to reveal Himself and draw hearts to follow Christ.
Header photo courtesy of Element5 Digital/Unsplash.
