Thanksgiving!

The girls load the middle deck of the Mayflower with 102 "pilgrims", each with accompanying "box" of belongings. Can you imagine this for over 2 months??!!

Things we have learned about the pilgrims so far:

• There was not much room for them in the Mayflower!
• It was probably pretty stinky in the Mayflower!
• The kids had to work hard to help their families!
• They had to leave most of their stuff behind when they sailed to the New World!
• We are glad that we were not pilgrims back then! :)
  
• They believed that it was all worth it to be able to worship God in a way that they believed honored Him and was in accordance with the Bible.

As Christians, we are called to be pilgrims here!

The writer of Hebrews says of Abraham:
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

And of the people of God in general:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Is God worth it to you and to me? Is He worth leaving everything you or I have for a better country? Is He worth the hard work that it takes to pursue godliness and prepare for eternity? Yes, yes and yes! This is what I want my children to learn from the pilgrims!