Thanksgiving Hymns and Songs

I wanted to share a few of the hymns and songs that I remember being sung in church around Thanksgiving.

The first is "Come Ye Thankful People Come."  Here's a YouTube clip that uses Hymn Charts arrangement of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGO1najnMa8.

I found an interesting article about the author Henry Alford at http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/henry-alford-author-of-thanksgiving-hymn-come-ye-thankful-people-come-11630402.html.

The second is "We Gather Together." Here's a YouTube clip of Celtic Women performing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0JVqR8KnF4.

I also remember this song from the early 1980s called "Thankful on My Knees." There's a YouTube clip here that is probably the original recording with just some still pictures added: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taKQlmz2hu8.  Even though some of the lyrics are dated because the current news anchors and news items are different, it echoes a sentiment that I've felt often as this Thanksgiving approaches -- "Who decided that it's wrong to be a people under God?"  Certainly the early Pilgrims showed their gratitude to God for the safety in crossing the Atlantic and for the harvest in that first Thanksgiving. Sometimes I get the idea that what people want today is not "freedom of religion" which would give one the right to practice his religion, but "freedom from religion" which limits the ability to practice one's religion. There are ways that it reminds me of the horrors and atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust era although I don't think we are to the extremes yet that Hitler and his followers practiced.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving today, let us be thankful to our Creator God for his wonderful provisions for us. Let us be thankful that we have been able to "gather together."