When I was a child, I used to enjoy watching a children’s TV program called Captain Kangaroo. Every Thanksgiving morning, the program would end with all the characters taking their places around a beautifully set Thanksgiving table that was laden with turkey, dressing, and all the side dishes, they would greet each other warmly, and then together they would bow their heads as the hymn “We Gather Together” would be playing in the background. It was a beautiful and solemn way to end the program and to begin Thanksgiving Day.
Watching Captain Kangaroo every Thanksgiving morning became a ritual for many of us who were children back in the day. There was wisdom in the timing of the program. As soon as the program ended, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade would begin, and for many years the Grand Marshal of the parade was none other than Captain Kangaroo himself, sitting on a big chair on the first float at the beginning of the parade as the parade was starting to wind its way down Fifth Avenue. Every kid east of the Rockies would be watching that parade. What else was there to do on Thanksgiving morning? They had a captive audience. As I reflect on those days, a couple of things come to mind:
Since those days I’ve learned a few things. First, TV usually isn’t live, so the good captain didn’t need to run a sprint to get from his recording studio to his seat on the float in the parade on Fifth Ave. Second, “We Gather Together” is a very old hymn of the church, written many centuries before the days of Captain Kangaroo. Third, for what it’s worth, the version of the song that they used on Captain Kangaroo was recorded by then-popular singer Perry Como. The hymn “We Gather Together” is a Dutch hymn that was written in 1597. The Dutch Christians had not been permitted to gather for worship as they saw fit, as there was a war going on, and the Dutch were under the rulership of a Spanish king who had different ideas about worship than they did. When the Spanish king was defeated, the Dutch Christians were once again permitted to gather as congregations to worship in the ways that they felt were appropriate. They sang this hymn to thank God for making it possible to gather again to worship Him corporately, and to proclaim that God “forgets not His own”. Over the years, the historical context of the hymn was forgotten, and Americans began using an English translation of the hymn as a Thanksgiving Day anthem. The Dutch were not singing in English, and they were gathering to worship, not to eat turkey and watch football. They were devout Dutch Christians who had hung onto their faith during a time of persecution and who had survived, with their faith intact, because they had recognized that God was always with them during their times of trial; they drew comfort by reminding themselves that God “forgets not His own”. I wonder what the enduring effect has been on the generation of children who heard that old and beautiful hymn being sung year after year on Thanksgiving morning on Captain Kangaroo, just before the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Was something being instilled into our impressionable young minds that we were able to carry into adulthood? Maybe we learned that everything does not have to be casual, trivial, and random, but that there are times and places to ponder things of greater meaning. Maybe we learned that everything in the world does not need to be oriented around fun and entertainment, but that there is value in serious, somber, and holy moments. Maybe we learned that there is beauty in solemnity, and that there is something that happens during gatherings that doesn’t happen when we’re alone. Maybe we learned something about family, about community, about friendship. Maybe seeing the bowed heads and hearing the words of “We Gather Together” helped us to focus, if only for a moment, on something that was of greater value than parades and food and football. As we grew into our teen years and started to think less like children and more like adults, and then eventually as we matured into adulthood, hopefully we came to understand that in life there would be times when we would need to take a stand for what we believed, even if it meant that we would be persecuted. Maybe we came to understand that there would be times when we would need to ask God for the strength to endure difficult trials. Maybe we learned that there would be times when we would need to remind ourselves that God forgets not His own, and that our very survival might necessitate this quality of faith. Maybe we came to understand that there is something or Someone who is greater than our holiday festivities, and that this Someone deserves our attention. Maybe we came to realize that thankfulness is not an expression of dutiful politeness, like saying “thank you” when receiving a gift that we really didn’t want, but a heart posture, a heart of continual gratefulness, and that giving thanks is an empty exercise unless we are thankful to Someone who gave us all that we have and are—namely, to God Himself. Today we still celebrate Thanksgiving, but all too often, all we have left of the holiday are the turkey, the football games and the Macy’s parade. We may “give thanks” as a polite and dutiful exercise. We may even sing “We Gather Together” (though it’s probably being sung much less now than it was when we were younger). Do we forget the God who is behind it all? God helps His people to persevere through times of trial, but we must have the faith to call upon Him and to trust Him. God is worth living for, and He is worth dying for. We are His cherished children. He forgets not His own. Blessed are those who learned these things as children. Blessed are those who continue in these things as adults, and who teach them, by word and by example, to their children and their grandchildren. I hope that some of us may have started to learn these lessons as young children, while watching Captain Kangaroo on TV on those Thanksgiving mornings, while we were waiting for the parade to begin, the turkey to cook and the guests to arrive. I hope we are still learning these lessons, and that we are passing them on to the next generations. May we continue to gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing. May we continue to remember that God “forgets not His own”. In a world that is becoming ever more shallow and ever more fragmented, these things must be preserved, for the glory of God and for the good of us all.
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