We all know what today is about. The purpose of the holiday is right there in its name: Thanksgiving. Nothing complicated or ambiguous about that. Today is a time we give thanks for what we have.

That’s the idea, anyway. Most Americans probably just eat a lot of turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce, argue with relatives and take a nap then resume their lives just as they had been before.

Things weren’t always so unthankful. The early Americans that began the Thanksgiving tradition in this country truly had a reason to rejoice when a plentiful harvest was brought in.

“Our harvest being gotten in,” Edward Winslow of the Plymouth Colony wrote in December 1621 to a friend in England, “our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.”

Those settlers celebrated that harvest with a group of Native Americans, who sent men out to hunt deer so that the event might extend to several days.

“And although it is not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we wish you partakers of our plenty,” Winslow wrote.

While it was not always so plentiful for Winslow, too many Americans have taken for granted the fact that it has been and probably always will be so plentiful for them.

But that’s not the case for everyone. Plenty of people around the world don’t have plenty to eat today or any day for that matter. We should pray for them today along with being thankful for what we have.