When Thanking God Might Seem Impossible . . .
Write a hymn!
The story of the Rev. Martin Rinckart inspires us each Thanksgiving.
Let me tell it one more time.
Pastor Rinckart was one of four pastors in the walled city of Eilenburg, Germany, in 1637. The city was a refuge from the devastation of the Thirty Years War. Its over-crowded streets became a breeding ground for the Great Plague.
Death was all around. There were four pastors. They were called upon to perform as many as 40 funerals a day. One pastor fled. Rinckart conducted the funerals of two others and that of his wife. All but three government officials died. Children were hit particularly hard. Rinckart conducted nearly 4,500 funerals before the dead began to be buried without ceremony in trenches.
Famine followed pestilence and Rinckart helped keep the peace when fights broke out over food. He gave away as much as he could without starving his own family.
He mortgaged his future income to help feed the destitute who gathered at his door.
The Swedish occupying forces demanded tribute from the people of Eilenburg in excess to anything that could possibly be paid. Rinckart attempted to negotiate with the occupying forces to no avail.
He gathered his followers and said, “Come, my children, we can find no hearing, no mercy with men, let us take refuge with God.”
His earnest devotion impressed The Swedish general and the tribute demand was greatly reduced.
From this man of God, who knew little but duty amidst profound suffering came the words we sing at Thanksgiving.
Memorize them!
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.