Thanksgiving, Part 1: Squanto, a Human Mediator

This month, Jeff Bezos's space firm Blue Origin launched a pair of NASA spacecraft on a mission to Mars.  The firm hopes this mission will be a giant step toward landing humans on the “red planet.”

Imagine if you are among the first humans to set foot on Martian soil.  Within the hour, you are stunned to see another human being approaching you.  He looks human but appears to have an other-world ethnicity.  Then, to your amazement, he smiles reluctantly and greets you in your own language.  Sound far-fetched?  Certainly!  But it is not unlike the experience of the Pilgrims who met Native Americans when they arrived at Plymouth Rock, having sailed 3,000 miles from Europe, in 1621. 

“An Instrument Sent of God”
After their grueling ocean voyage, the Pilgrims set foot on North American soil, not knowing what to expect or whether they would survive.  To their surprise, their party met another human being who differed only in ethnicity and who greeted them in the English language!  They would come to know their English-speaking friend as Tisquantum, or “Squanto,” a member of the Patuxent tribe of the Wampanoag confederation.

Our tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving, often with a lavish abundance of food and comfort, is rooted in a history in which a widespread loss of human lives was averted by the providential hand of God.  Only 53 Pilgrims had survived their treacherous voyage across the Atlantic.  They faced harsh weather and limited food, and many of them died.  But providentially, those who reached Plymouth Rock were saved because of the kindness of Squanto.  

Squanto graciously assisted the Pilgrims as an interpreter to establish communication and peace with the Wampanoag’s including its chief, Massasoit.  Then, Squanto and his tribesmen assisted the Pilgrims in hunting game from the forest, obtaining seafood from the Atlantic, and growing corn and other crops.  It is truly a marvelous show of God’s providential care that Squanto had been equipped at just the right time to serve as a mediator to forge peaceful relationships between people of two very different cultures.
 

A mediator is a neutral third party who stands between two individuals or groups that are at odds in order to assist in bringing conflict resolution and a mutually acceptable settlement.  Squanto’s mediation of peaceful relations between the Native American majority and the European Pilgrim minority was certainly a cause for thankfulness on that first Thanksgiving.  But the backstory which centers on Squanto’s life is even more amazing.

Squanto explained how he had been captured by English sailors and taken to Europe (circa. 1614) where he and other captured Native Americans were taught to speak English as preparation for them to be guides for explorers of the North American frontier.  Here Squanto lived with John Slaney, a Christian merchant.  Squanto learned English, worked for Slaney, and worshiped with English Christians where he must have been regularly exposed to Christian teaching.  According to a more complete account of Squanto’s life (See HERE), he was captured a second time and transported to Europe.  But this time, he was providentially purchased from the slave auction block and set free by brothers of a local monastery.

As a free man who may or may not have ever professed faith in Christ, Squanto eventually returned again to his North American homeland where he became an instrument of God’s saving grace as a mediator between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.  Governor William Bradford recognized Squanto’s miraculous role and later wrote that he was “a special instrument sent of God for their good.”  For additional details on the spiritual context of how God worked among the lives of the Pilgrims, see our 2024 Oikonomia from which part of the above content was taken [Click HERE].

The way in which God prepared and used Squanto to foster peace between Native Americans and Europeans and save the Pilgrims from starvation  and death illustrates what is required of a

successful mediator.  Here are a few character traits and abilities Squanto possessed as a mediator:

1)  Knowledge of Language and Cultures
2)  Vision of a “Higher Purpose”
3)  Showed Empathy and Compassion
4)  Built the Trust of Both Adversaries
5)  Provided for Their Future

Other Human Mediators
Since the time of Squanto, other men and women of character have served as human mediators.  Benjamin Franklin served as a diplomatic mediator between America and Europe during the crucial period of the birth of the United States.  Fast forward to the 1950’s, we were intrigued by the name, Dag Hammerskjold, a man of deep faith in God whose quiet diplomacy provided mediation during the early years of the United Nations. 

Among U.S. presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is regarded as “one of the most influential international mediators” (ChatGPT).  More recently, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump have been instrumental in promoting Arab-Israeli peace.  President Carter negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt in the 1970’s.  President Trump continues to expand the Middle East peace efforts which he began in his first term through the Abraham Accord.

Among professing Christians is David Augsburger, an American Mennonite pastor known for his cross-cultural counseling and conflict mediation; and Gary R. Collins, former President of the American Assn. of Christian Counselors, well known for his pioneering approach to Christian counseling.  Corrie ten Boom of Dutch descent mediated for reconciliation between victims and their former German persecutors who served under the Third Reich.  Mother Teresa who served in India and Albania is recognized as a “mediator of personal and community conflict through humanitarian service (ChatGPT).”

Readers who conduct their own internet searches will turn up names of other men and women who have served as human mediators.  But all human mediators have one thing in common: they are humans who are imperfect and the durability of their accomplishments last only as long as other fallen humans agree to honor their treaties and agreements.   Perfect, lasting mediation requires a Mediator infinitely superior to any human being.  That Person is the perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ.

One True Mediator
Overshadowing imperfect human mediation is the infinitely greater mediation inaugurated and sustained through the life, death, resurrection, and intercession of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ.  In 1 Timothy 2: 5-6a (NLT), we read

For, there is one God and one Mediator
who can reconcile God and humanity
—the man Christ Jesus.
He gave His life
to purchase freedom for everyone.

The Book of Genesis reveals our need for a “Mediator between God and man.” Early in the Creation narrative, we learn that the first man and woman walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden.  Imagine that!  No blemish existed between them and God to interrupt their perfect fellowship with God—that is, until sin entered, causing Adam and Eve to hide from each other (Genesis 3: 7) and from God (v. 8-10).  Sin corrupted their minds and created feelings of shame, doubt, suspicion, fear, and alienation from each other and from God.

Every human being is made to worship and enjoy God as the central purpose of being (Ecclesiastes 12: 13).  Although God’s once-perfect image bearers forfeited their fellowship with God, they did not lose their nature as God’s image bearers (Genesis 1: 27).  Worse than that, under sin’s curse and without God, all mankind is pronounced “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2: 1).  As such, we are spiritually separated from God who is Holy and cannot be in fellowship with sinful mankind. 

Being “dead in our sin” and possessing corrupt minds (Romans 1: 28), we became like blind people walking in darkness.  Yet, pathetically, God’s once-perfect image bearers still seek Him, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist… (Acts 17: 27b-28a).  The Apostle Paul spoke these words to Greek philosophers in Athens while standing with them in the midst of many stone images of pagan gods from whom they were seeking to gain justification and merit.  They listened to Paul as he elegantly described the One true God, Jehovah, the One in whom all men and women “live and move” and owe their very existence:

“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17: 29-31.”

These words stunned the Greek philosophers.  Pause a moment and meditate on them.  Some wanted to hear more (v. 32).  Could it be that this “UNKNOWN GOD” (v. 23) who was not represented among their pagan images was the One true God for whom their souls had longed?  Was it possible that this “Unknown God” would call them to give an account of their lives “in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed as judge”— shockingly, a Man whom this God had raised from the dead!?  The answers to these questions are all YES!  This is the “Man” whom Paul would later declare as the one Mediator also between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…(1 Timothy 2: 5-6a).

In “Thanksgiving, Part 2: Jesus, Divine Mediator,” we compare the human mediation of Squanto with the divine mediation of Jesus Christ. Specifically, we will cite five marks of an effective mediator, each with Scriptures and commentary suitable for a daily meditation leading up to Thanksgiving.  [Click HERE for Part 2.]

Thanksgiving for Our “Family Tree”

As I look forward to our family gathering on Thanksgiving this year, I am filled with thankfulness when consider all the past circumstances that have clicked into place to make us “family.”  Like the pin tumblers on a lock that fall into place only in response to the right door key, so is the myriad of choices and circumstances that have unfolded to bring our family into existence.

The analogy of a “family tree” becomes more meaningful the more I think of it.  Like a large tree, our family has both branches and roots that have grown during the last fifty years since Abby and I were married on June 14, 1969.  We thank God for His salvation by grace through Jesus’s obedient sacrifice that has given us both Life in Him.  Then, He allowed circumstances to bring us together as students on the campus of Malone College.  Two first-born’s, each with our own self-centered wills and priorities, could never have “become one” and “remained one” for over one-half century without God’s grace and mercy.  Yet, Christ spanned the infinite gulf between God’s holiness and our sinful separation to redeem us, purchasing our forgiveness (Titus 2: 11-14).  Because of His loving sacrifice, we see the gulf of our differences as tiny and manageable as we lean on our Savior for our daily needs.

Our marriage has also produced a family tree with two wonderful branches, a son, Bradley Allen, and a daughter, Melinda Maetta.  They eventually married and their loved ones will now take their places at our Thanksgiving table.  As we gather this year, I realize that our two branches have grown and branched more to form a wonderfully diverse “international family” representing numerous nationalities.   But, in order to appreciate our international family, let’s refer to our “roots” derived from our parents and grandparents.

Abby and I understand that her grandmother, Alva Mae (Kennedy) Bright, was one-fourth Native American, representing the Cherokee Nation of western North Carolina.   Alva married John E. Bright who was of English descent.  They settled and raised ten children in East Tennessee near their places of birth.  Alva’s oldest daughter, Marietta Bright, married Ralph Moser who was of German descent.  Marietta bore seven daughters, the oldest being Alvadell (“Abby”).

My grandfather, Earl Bauders, was a descendent of British and Irish lineages.  When Earl who was an Englishman “came courting” my grandmother, Naoma Troyer, he had a challenging time earning the trust and respect of her family.  The Troyer’s were part of the Amish culture of Holmes County, Ohio.  The Amish are of Swiss German Anabaptist origin.  Earl and Naoma’s daughter, Esther Mae Bauders, married my father, Bert Silvius, who was of German descent.  Although I have not explored Silvius genealogy back to the Revolutionary War era, the Silvius family is rumored to have come to America during the late 1700’s.  The Silvius’s may have been among the Hessians who fought against the Continental Army led by George Washington at Valley Forge.

Large trees depend upon hundreds of miles of roots!  Each major tree root is anchored and nourished by untold numbers of tiny roots and rootlets extending throughout the soil.  Likewise, our current family tree is rooted in a myriad of past choices, marriages, and circumstances that God has allowed to occur among our ancestors representing many nations and tribes that Abby and I have never met. 

If we are all able to gather together on Thanksgiving this year, the two branches that God allowed Abby and I to form; Bradley and Melinda, will have brought additional international flavor to our table.  Brad’s wife, Raquel, came to Ann Arbor, Michigan from Rio Grande do sul, the southern-most state of Brazil, South America.  According to historical records, Rio Grande do sul has had a gaucho culture like neighboring Argentina and Uruguay, and has since been influenced by Portuguese, German, and Italian immigrants.

Meanwhile, Melinda, married Steve Salyers.  The Salyers name is traceable to Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain.  The Salyers may have come to America in response to religious and political persecution.  Melinda and Steve have three children, Caleb, Kiara, and Della Rose.  This year Caleb and his new bride, Gurvinder Mahi Salyers, will be the latest couple to form in our family.  Gurvinder (“Soni”) was born in America, a daughter of parents who emigrated from India.

And so, this Thanksgiving, our gathering will represent the newest branches of our “family tree” rooted in a wonderfully diverse international heritage and branching outward and upward in ways that only our Sovereign God can foreknow.  Abby and I thank God for His provision of our marriage and family, and we pray and hope for HIs blessing and provision for our offspring. 


Know that YAHWEH Himself is God;
It is He who has made us,
and not we ourselves;
We are His people
and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courts with praise. 
Give thanks to Him;
bless His name.   – Psalm 100: 3-4

Learning Lessons from the Pilgrims

In November, 2020 we will be celebrating the 400-year anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Harbor in what is now Massachusetts.  But why did the Pilgrims embark on this daring voyage from England via Holland to another continent?  As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, and then the quadricentennial anniversary in 2020, I wanted to be sure that I have the “Pilgrim story” correct. (See “Further Reading” below.)

Historians record that the Pilgrims left England for Holland in 1607 in pursuit of religious freedom from the Church of England.  Also known as separatists, the Pilgrims correctly believed that “the Church” had strayed from biblical Christianity in the years following the Protestant Reformation.  While religious freedom was their chief motive for leaving England, this does not explain why the Pilgrims left from Holland on the Mayflower, in 1620.  Robert Tracy McKenzie, professor of history and chair of the history department at Wheaton College, finds in the writings of William Bradford who later became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony what I will consider to be three reasons the Pilgrims left Holland for North America.

First, the Pilgrim’s placed high priority on establishing godly families and a community patterned according to their understanding of biblical principles.  Hoping to accomplish this goal in Holland, they instead encountered a morally permissive Dutch culture that made it difficult for Pilgrim parents to raise their children with “due correction without reproof or reproach from their neighbors.”

Second, over half of the separatists that came to Holland had to become textile factory workers.  According to McKenzie, in place of the seasonal rhythms of farm life they had known in England, the Pilgrims faced the work of carding, spinning, or weaving in their own homes from dawn to dusk, six days a week, merely to keep body and soul together. Hunger and want had become their taskmaster.

Perhaps the Pilgrims might have tolerated the moral laxity and harsh economic conditions, were it not for what they saw as a third, more fundamental reason for leaving Holland.  They came to understand that the first two factors were becoming a threat to maintaining a vibrant Christian faith.  To these separatists, their daily walk of faith depended upon a cohesive faith community centered around strong families and church.  Therefore, we should call these committed Christians “Pilgrims” and “separatists” not because they separated geographically and sailed to an alien land.  Instead, the two names fit because their faith in God and His Word had led them to view themselves as “Pilgrims” and “separatists” from a world whose secular values were in opposition to their beliefs. 

Having left England for religious freedom, the Pilgrims found themselves in a Dutch culture that threatened to smother their lives of faith with the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things (Mark 4: 19).  Maybe their “second separation,” a separation that led them to cut their moorings from a permissive, materialistic culture of Holland and set sale on the Mayflower, was a greater challenge than separating from the Church of England.  Whatever the case, the Pilgrim story provides Americans today with a choice of two Thanksgiving narratives—and more broadly, two American narratives.

Professor McKenzie challenges Christians today not to seize on the first narrative as simply “ammunition for the culture wars” against an unbelieving culture that undervalues or despises “religious liberty.”  While I do not deny that Christ-followers have an important role in standing against threats to religious liberty, the institutions of marriage and family, and other freedoms under the U.S. Constitution, we must not ignore the second Pilgrim/American narrative.  As Christ-followers, we must not forget that we too are called in the power of the Holy Spirit to be “pilgrims in a foreign land” and as such to remember another battlefront—one within our own souls, as the Apostle Peter reminds early believers (emphasis mine):

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: who in time past were no people, but now are God's people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.  Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2: 9-12).

Providentially, the Cape Cod coastline provided safe harbor.

Here, I must admit that as I write, I am “preaching to myself.”  I find it much easier to be my own political and cultural warrior against materialism and moral laxness than to focus regularly on battling the thorns and thistles that tend to grow and thrive within my soul.  So easily, they can crowd out my priority of seeking the peace of God and the fellowship with His Holy Spirit through daily time in prayer and the Word of God.   John Winthrop who led 700 Puritan immigrants to New England and was instrumental in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1630, preached a sermon entitled, “A Model of Christian Charity (Love)” in which he emphasized the spiritual disciplines that promote inner virtues and war against our fleshly selfishness:

Whatsoever we did, or ought to have done, when we lived in England, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice; as in this duty of love, we must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. 

After challenging his Puritan listeners, Winthrop gives instruction and his vision for righteous living in community of Massachusetts Bay.  His message also challenges me to discipline my inner life so my words and actions will showcase Christ’s love in my marriage, family, church, and government (emphasis mine):

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God’s sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

In summary, may I apply Winthrop’s challenge to all of us who choose to regard this year’s Thanksgiving as a holiday, or “holy day?”  In true “holy-day” spirit, we must direct our “thankfulness” to God, the only object worthy of our thanks—not to ourselves or our accomplishments, not to America or her cropland, forests, fisheries, mines; or great leaders and past heroes, as much as we ought to be thankful for all of these.  Our ultimate thanksgiving must be uplifted to the only Worthy Object of our thanks: Almighty God.

In giving our thanks to God, may we remember the “Pilgrim Fathers” and their costly commitments to separate not only from a church that was ruled by false doctrine, but from a materialistic and morally drifting culture that threatened the integrity of their marriages, families, and church.  But, most important of all is the lesson for us is in how Pilgrims believed and behaved.  They understood that their primary role was to be witnesses of Jesus Christ and not simply critics of politics and culture. 

In conclusion, Tracy McKinzie challenges us not to ignore the aspects of [the Pilgrim] story that might cast a light into our own hearts. They struggled with fundamental questions still relevant to us today: What is the true cost of discipleship? What must we sacrifice in pursuit of the kingdom? How can we “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15) and keep ourselves “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27)? What sort of obligation do we owe our local churches, and how do we balance that duty with family commitments and individual desires? What does it look like to “seek first the kingdom of God” and can we really trust God to provide for all our other needs?  As Christians, these are crucial questions we need to revisit regularly. We might even consider discussing them with our families [during] our Thanksgiving celebrations.

Further Reading:
The following articles and two books are recommended as Thanksgiving readings:
Thanksgiving and Black Friday: Invitations to Develop Contentment (2011)
Remembering the “Yearning to Breathe Free” (2013, and edited recently for corrections)
Thanksgiving in a Watching World (2014)
How Do You P-R-A-Y This Thanksgiving? (2015)
McKenzie, Robert Tracy. 2013.  The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us…
Metaxas, Eric.  2012.  Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving.  Thomas Nelson.

Thanksgiving in a Watching World

It’s Thanksgiving Day and I have much for which to be thankful to the ultimate Giver …of every good and perfect gift that comes down from above… (James 1: 17).  This past year, God has taught me more about Himself--and, about myself.  How rich His grace and mercy are toward me; and, how prone I am to wander from His ways.  God continues to work in our marriage again this year, using trials and His Word to refine us individually and help us surrender to His love, the ultimate source of our love for each other.  We have seen God work in the lives of our family and within their homes.  Finally, we have grieved with several dear friends and family members, and we are asking God to comfort them from the sting of loss. 

In both the blessings and trials this year, I have become more aware of the spiritual warfare evidenced in my own life and in world events.  Multiple scandals, mismanagement of tax dollars, and deception by leadership in Washington are daily news.  I pray that our president and all of our leaders will submit to biblical authority and that moral clarity and ethics would guide them.  But, I also ask God’s Spirit to reprove and correct me through His Word when the kingdom within my own mind becomes inflamed with pride and rebellion.  

I ask why our elected officials cannot restore authority and integrity to the function of our nation’s borders.  But I must remember to guard the borders of my own life as the Spirit bids me not to …love the things of this world [system of thought]…for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2: 16).  While I pray for justice, calmness, and respect for the rule of law among rioters and looters in Ferguson and other cities, I must ask God to keep me in perfect peace and my mind fixed on Him (Isaiah 26: 3).  When I am frustrated by a lack of moral clarity in our leadership and the actions that undermine the foundation of marriage, diminish the value of human life, disregard family values, and derail our educational system, I must ask what I can do personally to uphold these institutions and values.

I am concerned about the advance of power hungry tyrants and terrorists who grow increasingly bold where America has withdrawn from providing strong leadership.  And, I am even more concerned that many Americans view our nation as the aggressor rather than an agency that has defended freedom at great cost against numerous attempts by tyrants to dominate whole continents.  Rather than join the angry voices on either side of a deeply divided America today, may I reexamine why I think and believe as I do in the light of God’s truth.  For history records that the Puritans valued so much the freedom to follow God’s truth and to worship Him freely that they placed their lives in His care as they set out to cross the ocean and established communities governed by God’s principles.

John Winthrop, Puritan Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote his sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” aboard the Arbella, in 1620.  According to an introduction to the sermon by John Beardsley, charter member of the Winthrop Society, Winthrop’s intent was to prepare the people for planting a new society in a perilous environment, but his practical wisdom is timeless.  Beardsley adds, In an age not long past, when the Puritan founders were still respected by the educational establishment, this was required reading in many courses of American history and literature

Consider how the following excerpt from Winthrop’s sermon would challenge his Puritan community to unity of purpose and love for one another:

For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities for the supply of others' necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as His own people and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness, and truth then formerly we have been acquainted with.

Winthrop’s vision for the Puritan community under his governorship reflects his practical wisdom which is timeless in its warning to “Post-Christian America:”

For we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for Gods sake; we shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into Curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whether we are going…

Prayer:  Father God, on this Thanksgiving, revive within me a thankful heart for all You have done.  Help me to remember that I was once an alien to whom You granted citizenship within the “new nation” that you are building.  A nation whose citizens trust in the death and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus; a nation that You want to be like a ‘shining city on a hill.’  Through Your indwelling Spirit, help me to read and heed Your Word with willing joy.  Then, may Your love move me to live daily in such a way as not to dim the welcoming light of Your Truth that is desperately needed by all men and women.  Particularly, help me not to offend others unnecessarily when we disagree on issues of our day—issues that, while deserving a voice of moral clarity, must also be seen as tremors from the emergence of the Eternal Kingdom for which You are even now preparing the present world.   Yes, Thy kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven.  Amen.

Fundamentals of Conservation, Part 3 "Serving with Our Neighbor"

Thanksgiving is a special holiday to me because it has been generally less commercialized than nearby Halloween and Christmas.   Thanksgiving invites us to remember the only true Object of genuine thankfulness— God Who is the ultimate Provider of all things.  Indeed, thankfulness without an object to receive our thanks is narrow and incomplete.

In our recent blog entries on “Fundamentals of Conservation,” we have emphasized that conservation, or “con-service” means to serve with.  Thus, both “thanks-giving” and “con-service” suggest the need for an object.  Conservation has two objects of “service”—with God, and with creation.  Furthermore, both “con-service” and “thanks-giving” imply that a certain quality of character be expressed toward the object in question; namely, a submissive spirit and a thankful spirit.  But how do these character qualities come about?

Biblically speaking, conservation is a practice of individuals who have acknowledged that rebellion and sin, not submission and service, are “in their DNA” inherited from Adam and Eve (Genesis 3).  As a result, they recognize their utter inability to exercise true dominion (submissive stewardship; Genesis 1: 16-28; 2: 15) without first humbly confessing and seeking God’s forgiveness through the atoning blood of Christ.  The true conservationist is submissive and thankful that God has redeemed him and enlisted him to serve on a planet that groans under the wages of sin (Romans 8: 19-23).

For the spiritually reborn child of God, biblical conservation grows out of an intimate relationship of serving with God.  Serving in this partnership with the Creator, we can learn the origin, true value, and significance of creation (Part 1, Article #1 April).  The quality of our stewardship is further enhanced as we learn more about the workings of creation (See Part 1, Article #2 May) and what is pleasing to our Creator (2 Corinthians 5: 9 and See Part 1, Article #3 June) as we serve Him by serving with creation.  Serving with creation in turn requires that we become students of both the historical influences on the land (See Part 2, Article #1 September) and the current processes at work in the landscape (See Part 2, Article #2 October).

This month’s “Fundamentals of Conservation”, Part 3, emphasizes that biblical conservation (or stewardship) of creation is practiced not only by serving with God and serving with Creation, but in serving with our neighbor.  This notion is based on the fact that God in the three Persons of the Trinity is a relational God.  It is this relational God Who created humans to exist in relationship with Him and with one another as His image bearers.  It follows that conservation blossoms in its fullest sense as we realize its relational nature as expressed when the conservationist serves with all three agents in right relationship—with God, creation, and neighbor.

I will now illustrate how conservation rests upon all three agents noted above, like the three legs of a stool in proper proportion.   I am thankful that God sought me out and redeemed me as His own son, then gave me a great love for His creation, and has blessed me with many good “neighbors” with whom to work.  Allow me to share first a few of the “neighbors” who have been partners, teachers, and mentors.

My dearest prairie partner in early 1980's
with Prairie Dock ("cut-leafed variety)

First, God has blessed me with my wife Alvadell (“Abby”), my nearest and dearest “neighbor” who has been “one with me” since 1969.  She has been beside me as wife, mother of our children, and companion in church, community, forest, and field.  Some of our most cherished communion with each other and with God has been as we’ve enjoyed the beauty and wonder of His creation.

In 1979, God led us as a family to Cedarville College where we grew spiritually in the light and warmth of pastors, friends, and colleagues for over three decades while I taught in the Science-Math Department.  Abby and I had discovered Cedarville ten years earlier while students at Malone College.  At Malone, it was Professor Charles C. King who had ignited my interest in botany and ecology.  Later Dr. King, as director of the Ohio Biological Survey, was responsible for identifying some of the remnant forest and prairie communities, including the railroad prairie remnants mentioned in this blog series.

Jack McDowell (center) and Charles C. King (right)

During my years at Cedarville, I became closely acquainted with two other prairie enthusiasts.  One was Jack McDowell who was so instrumental in conservation efforts through Columbus metroparks.  Jack explained to me how he and Charlie King had become fast friends after they had “chanced to meet” in, of all places, a prairie remnant community in central Ohio.  The other prairie enthusiast is Lynn Holtzman, a wildlife biologist with the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources.  Lynn’s commitment to land stewardship based on his pursuit of God and a scholarly understanding of biblical environmental ethics was instrumental in the development of my own conservation ethic.

Lynn Holtzman (Photo taken at Milford Ctr. Prairie, Union Co.)

In fact, Lynn’s master’s thesis was entitled “Nature as Neighbor: Aldo Leopold’s Extension of Ethics to the Land.”  God has allowed Lynn and I to be “good neighbors” in several land stewardship projects in SW Ohio.  Of course conservation efforts require the neighborly cooperation of local land managers as the following paragraphs should illustrate.

When the last freight train passed through Cedarville in the mid-1980’s, remnant prairie communities along the railway from Xenia to Columbus, Ohio became of greater interest, particularly because of the plan to convert the rails to bicycle trails.  Rather suddenly, the abandoned railways--long, narrow swaths of land with lots of “surface area” adjoining land owned by many “neighbors” per mile were about to undergo a change in land use. 

Native Royal Catchfly, Silene regia, in the narrow railway
corridor (now Prairie Grass Trail) surrounded by agriculture

Having gained some botanical knowledge of the flora along the abandoned railway, several park districts enlisted me in 2001 and 2002 to inventory and map the native plant species along the abandoned railway in Greene, Clark, and Madison counties.  In an effort to create interest in prairie plants of the abandoned railway among local residents, I created a webpage featuring color photos of remnant prairie flora.

As the bikeway was being completed, my students and I developed and conducted an opinion survey of landowners adjacent to the bikeway.  We had three goals the first of which was to determine how “bikeway neighbors” viewed the new bikeway.

Royal Catchfly and Culver's Root
growing in the narrow railway corridor surrounded by cropland

Second, we wanted to use the survey as an opportunity to locate individuals who would provide historical information about the prairie remnant communities.  Finally, we hoped that face-to-face encounters with landowners might spawn cooperative efforts leading to the development of buffer zones adjacent to the otherwise long, narrow configuration of the remnant prairie communities surrounded by agricultural cropland.

As a result of our “boots on the ground” presence, the students and I were able to meet several interested “bikeway neighbors” and we soon learned the necessity of neighborliness in our land conservation effort.  We were also welcomed by the Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails (FMCPT) capably led by Wayne Roberts.  As a result of our landowner survey and cooperation with Julia Cumming, Madison Soil and Water Conservation District, we were able to secure cooperation with Jim Mitchell, whom we had met through our opinion survey and who was interested in devoting some land adjacent to the bikeway to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).  

Transplants of native prairie plants into Mitchell field along
bikeway (upper R). Jim Mitchell & son (L), J. Zehring and I

The Mitchell land was sown in prairie grasses.  Jim allowed us to add prairie forbs to the field and used his skid-steer loader with forestry attachment to cut and remove trees and shrubs encroaching on the prairie adjacent to the bikeway.  We hope that the partnership with Jim Mitchell can be a prototype for more partnerships between the park district/bikeway program and “bikeway neighbors.”

The FMCPT has been very effective in promoting the “Prairie Grass Trail” bikeway in cooperation with the Soil Conservation District and other organizations.  We are using a strategic management plan in an attempt to conserve prairie remnant plant species using a combination of approaches including mechanical removal, controlled burning, and herbicidal applications to simulate the environmental conditions that preserved these historic prairie remnants.

Jerry Miller, FMCPT volunteer with Royal Catchfly and
Prairie Coneflower (dry seed heads) in the Mitchell field

Yes, conservation is “con-service”—serving with Creator, creation, and neighbors.  The relationship goes both ways; as we serve God and His creation, God keeps us by providing both spiritual and physical “bread.”  Likewise, land under proper care will yield its fruitfulness back to us in the form of food, fiber, medicinal compounds, aesthetic enjoyment, etc.  Thus, conservation is made complete when neighbors work together for the cause of serving both God and creation.  Don’t forget the three supporting legs of a stool.   These truths were illustrated this past summer during the Prairie Appreciation Bike Ride sponsored by the Friends of Madison Co. Parks and Trails.  Some of the riders on this July Saturday had been volunteer “bikeway neighbors” who had, during the late winter months, toiled together to cut and burn encroaching shrubs and trees to allow space and light for the prairie plants to grow.  Many had not seen the worksites since winter, and they responded with glee at their first sight of colorful native prairie wildflowers flourishing in places that had been overgrown with woody species.  This satisfaction and joy was the blessed result of their willingness to serve creation and share with neighbors in valuing the purposes of our conservation plan.

Prairie Appreciation Bike Riders
learn more about remnant prairie history and conservation.

The same commitment to land stewardship, or conservation, is expressed through the older and more comprehensive Town of Dunn Land Use Plan under the leadership of Calvin DeWitt.  (In Part 1, Article #1 of this series I had referenced Dr. Calvin DeWitt as the author of the book Earthwise (3rd. ed., 2011, Faith Alive Christian Resources) in which he develops the notion of con-servation.)  DeWitt reflects on the Town of Dunn conservation effort in his recent book, Song of a Scientist: The Harmony of a God-Soaked Creation (2012, Square Inch. Grand Rapids, MI).  I conclude with an excerpt from this book which illustrates the ingredients and outcomes of conservation—a relational process in which willing people in community serve with Creator, creation, and neighbor:

The members of our community made the decision to get to know our place well and to act on that knowledge for the benefit of the land and its life.  Many were motivated simply by love of the land and their community, others by their Norwegian Lutheran upbringing or their Irish Catholic heritage.  Together, by all of our mutual efforts, a land ethic was instilled in the heart of our community, and we have dedicated our lives to its defense.  Our land ethic is published on our town website.  But it is published best in our community: in the lives of citizens and in the remarkable landscape of our town, which proclaims the stewardship we practice in this place.  With our land ethic we join the glorious chorus of those around the world who proclaim God’s sustaining provisions in creation.

Remembering the “Yearning to Breathe Free”

“Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean.”   -- William Bradford

Bowing to worship and give thanks to their Creator was a fitting beginning for the Pilgrim Fathers when they arrived on the shores of North America on November 11, 1620.  The Pilgrims had suffered much from religious intolerance in England and had fled to Holland for a time, before embarking for North America to escape a culture of moral laxity.  They hoped that their perilous 65-day voyage across the Atlantic to North America would satisfy their “yearning to breathe free” to worship and serve the God to Whom they had entrusted their lives.

"The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor" - W.F. Halsall

Throughout world history, many various people groups have embarked on perilous trips much like the Pilgrims, some across rugged mountains and others across arid deserts or stormy seas in hopes of finding freedom and opportunity in a new land.  The descendents of Abraham migrated to Egypt to escape drought and famine (Genesis 47).  Two centuries later, numbering approximately 2 million, Abraham’s descendents were miraculously led by God and His humble servant, Moses, through the Red Sea and arid desert to escape slavery of Egypt and to establish a new nation under God.

Today, one can read news reports of the migration of refugees on many continents. For example, in Asia as a result of the war in Syria, an estimated 100,000 have died and more than 2,000,000 Christians and Muslims have fled.  Many Syrian refugees have migrated into the same region through which Abraham once migrated on his way from present day Iraq to modern day Israel. 

This Thanksgiving, I am reflecting on the manner in which God led our Pilgrim Fathers to come to America and establish civil laws that would eventually grow into our Constitution.  My reflection on American history has ushered in a time to reevaluate the freedoms I often take so lightly and which are being eroded by decisions made daily in Washington, DC.  Contemplating people groups now living under tyranny, and considering the prospect of an America in which our Constitution is being ignored or displaced makes me all the more thankful for a God Who will not be thwarted in His purposes by any human actions.  But I am also thankful for those among our leaders who stand up to honor God by humble and unselfish service to our country in both military and civilian roles. 

And so, on this Thanksgiving perhaps you would join me in thanking God for His many provisions if you live in America or another nation in which the basic freedoms are granted.   We can pray also for wisdom for world leaders, both in our country and abroad.   The decisions that they have made and are making will determine the trajectory of the future of our lives, and whether we will continue to have at least some of the freedoms for which Americans have fought and died in the past 250 years.

Source:  WORLD Magazine, Nov. 16, 2013

Perhaps you would also agree to join me in learning more about the Syrian refugees, or another group of displaced people, to pray for them, and to learn of ways to help those who are directly involved in providing assistance.   WORLD Magazine reports that numerous NGO’s, including World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse, are ministering to the needs of refugees not only in practical material ways but also in order to meet the deeper yearning for freedom within their souls.

This Thanksgiving, being thankful to God for our country and asking Him to direct us in ways that provide appropriate assistance to people groups in deep need can cause us to be renewed and refocused toward things that really matter.   We can be directed from our own selfish tendencies and the tendency to relax in our comfort zones, and instead to reflect on the great cost of freedom that was paid by our forefathers, many of whom yearned to breathe free to worship the One Who had purchased true freedom for them on Calvary’s cross. 

Estimated Number of Syrian Refugees
 (UN High Commission for Refugees)

As I reflect on past generations who have made great sacrifices because they yearned for both spiritual and political freedom, I wonder if our yearning today has turned from God Who alone can meet our greatest needs to the federal government which offers to satisfy our needs.  But, as we remember the assassination of President Kennedy this month, we ought to remember one of his famous challenges:  “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.”  Every invitation from government to take over responsibilities formerly handled by individuals, families, and communities is an invitation that comes at the price of a loss of freedom. 

A case in point is the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which promised health insurance coverage for all Americans, but at the cost of a loss of individual control over patient-doctor relationships and choice of a policy that best fits one’s needs.  Furthermore, the ACA will legalize the collection of extensive personal information to be stored in huge government databases.   Perhaps most unsettling is the numbing effect that expanding government services can have on the people of a nation, particularly if the services are not intended to provide temporary help coupled with a help toward gainful employment and financial independence. 

The toxic effects of prolonged welfare and other government programs on individual freedom and personal initiative can be inferred in the case of Greece which is experiencing dramatic increases in HIV transmission and infections associated with increases in prostitution and intravenous drug use.  The report, based on a World Health Organization study in 2011 includes mention of a number of deliberate self-infections with HIV “to obtain access to benefits of €700 per month and faster admission onto drug substitution programmes."  It is worth reflecting on regretful ways in which people seek to meet the yearning within to “breath” what only Heaven can supply.

In conclusion, the “yearning to breathe free” of our Pilgrim Fathers which eventually brought “a new birth of freedom” in the founding of our great nation is a cause for much reflection on this Thanksgiving Day, 2013.  May our reflections lead us to offer thanks and praise to God for His provision of political and spiritual freedom in Christ, and to renew our commitment to be a testimony in words and in actions on behalf of these freedoms.  Our testimony is especially important in today’s world in which America’s freedoms are being threatened.  Her beacon of liberty which had once shone brightly, even if imperfectly, is growing dimmer toward the multitudes across the world who look to her for hope.  The call of God recorded in II Chronicles 7: 14 outlines our only true path to breathing free:

And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

As a historical example of how Americans once applied the spirit of this call to humility and confession, I close with an excerpt from President George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Proclamation” presented on October 3, 1789:

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks…