Let’s pause before the busy Christmas season to reflect on Thanksgiving.

We think of the Pilgrims, who founded the Plymouth Colony, the first permanent settlement in New England. Of 103 Pilgrims who arrived there from England in 1620, 51 died the first winter.

After the first harvest, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving and prayer. This is an account of a people who followed God and of God’s faithfulness to them.

It’s also the story of how God taught these people core principles that would find their way into the Constitution and government of the United States of America.

Some English believers — called “the Brownists” — faced difficulty for holding to the belief that the Bible, and not the King of England, should be the final authority on matters of faith and, really, in all areas of life.  As a result, they experienced intense personal hardship, including the loss of their homes and possessions.

The “Brownists” emigrated to Holland, spending eleven years there in freedom. But they saw their children being drawn away by a licentious culture. So, they signed on with a London merchant and a core group of them headed off to the New World. Their pastor sent them with a strong admonition to honor the Lord by exhibiting patience with the many non-believers on shipboard with them. And he counseled them to form a democratic government, exhibiting wisdom and godliness in choosing — and then submitting to — these leaders. These core principles — tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law — endured and were later enshrined in the laws of a new nation.

The Pilgrims had to form a government much sooner than expected. Their intended destination was Virginia, which was under British control. But they were blown off course. They landed and chose to settle 300 miles north at Cape Cod. No government controlled that land and rebellion stirred among some of the non-Pilgrims.

Still on the ship, the Pilgrims drew up an agreement — the Mayflower Compact. This was a sacred “covenant” promising just and equal laws. This document was foundational to what would later become the constitutional government in America.

During their first year, the Pilgrims learned an important economic lesson. By agreement, the company in London owned all their property and required they operate a collectivist system. Each individual would receive an equal ration regardless of how much he had produced. The excess belonged to the investors. The homes they built were company property. This system failed. Fallen men don’t work hard for no reward.

The leadership abolished the socialist system and assigned every family a parcel of land. Soon the Pilgrims had more food than they could use. They began trading with the Indians and sending beaver skins back to England — getting out from under their debt to the London merchant. “Instead of famine,” Governor Bradford wrote, “now God gave them plenty.”

These are the roots of a vibrant nation.