The Day of Small Things

The Day of Small Things. Regularly, it is helpful to review our history, taking special notice of God’s hand of kindness. Israel did so. America does it, too, especially around the fourth Thursday every November, when we remember God’s preservation of the pilgrims through their first, harsh winter (1620), the next year’s bountiful harvest (1621), and their peaceful alliance with the Wampanoag tribe. In line with Zechariah 4:10—“For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice”—it is America’s story time again!

The story of Tisquantum (Squanto) of the Patuxet Tribe is evidence of God’s providence. Undoubtedly shocking, Squanto greeted the arriving pilgrims in 1620 in fluent English! He was God’s gift of unlooked-for help at Plymouth Rock, “a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation” (William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony). But Squanto’s journey to arrive at the beginning of the pilgrims’ great step of faith was long, unfair to him, yet amazing to the pilgrims.

In approximately 1585, Squanto was born to the Patuxet Tribe that populated the land hugging the coasts of what is now called North America. When he was 20 years old (1605), he and three other Native American males were abducted by Englishmen, under the command of Captain George Weymouth, who had been commissioned by Sir Ferdinando Gorges of the Plymouth Trading Company to explore the coastlands (Maine to Massachusetts) of the New World. Weymouth carted Squanto and three of his tribesmen back to England to show his financiers examples of indigenous inhabitants. As undeniably cruel as the slave trade was, it was arguably fortunate in an entirely misfortunate situation that Squanto was then acquired by Gorges, who taught him English for sending him as a guide on future expeditions.

In 1614, Squanto returned to the New World with Captain John Smith (of Jamestown fame) as a guide, only to be kidnapped again, this time by Smith’s associate, Thomas Hunt. However, Hunt sold Squanto in the Spanish slave market for profit. Squanto escaped from that unthinkably awful life before long and found refuge among some Franciscan Friars in Spain, who taught Squanto both Spanish and the doctrines of the Christian faith. Squanto then voyaged back to the New World in 1619 only to discover upon arrival that his entire tribe had been eradicated by disease contracted from English traders. He was the only Patuxet left alive, inadvertently saved by his slavers. But God had another mission for Squanto.

Alone in the world, Squanto took refuge among the nearby Wampanoag people. A few months later, another English ship dropped anchor at a site they called Plymouth Rock. Instead of interpreting more Englishmen as a threat to be eliminated, which would have been justifiable within Squanto’s story, Squanto offered them his friendship when he greeted them in English. He taught them survival skills, how to grow maize corn, where to fish and collect edible nuts and berries, and techniques for storing their food supplies through the long winter. Squanto mediated an alliance between the pilgrims and his adopted Wampanoag tribe. Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag and ninety tribesmen celebrated with the pilgrims and Squanto the first Thanksgiving in 1621. Squanto’s help reminds America of God’s care.