Thanksgiving?
Today is one of my favorite days. Thanksgiving conjurs up so many memories from my sub-concious that it is hard to describe all of the emotions I feel. Most of those memories center around the "kids' table" at my grandmother's home, where my cousins and I would laugh and cause mayhem during the meal with our pranks.
Today, I will be sitting down to a meal with my sons, daughter-in-law, and our adopted British son, Matt (everyone needs a pet ;0 ) Janet and I have been longing for this day since our move to the midwest. We miss our family. Thanksgiving brings us together today to really give thanks for the grace of God and the blessing of family.
As with all holidays, I continue to be amazed by the return to spiritual principles that a day like this brings. Our nation does, at least for a moment, seems to think about giving and sharing and being thankful. Tomorrow will be a different story. People will be pushing, shoving and grabbing as the stores open for the busy shopping season. That part of the season bothers me, especially as we deal with the poor and cast-offs of society. With the giving of gifts often comes the throwing away of the homeless, except for the occassional soup kitchen meal or toyshop.
My thoughts also turn to Iraq and Afghanistan today. We have lost over 3000 soldiers and Marines in the war. Unfortunately, there have been by some estimations nearly 100,000 civilians killed in this "campaign for freedom" as our President calls it. No matter your political persuasion, war is bloody, senseless and painful. Elections are not enough for the Iraqis and the people of Afghanistan, eventually, there must be infrastructure and services from a government free from corruption for them to have something for which they can be thankful.
So as you sit around a table today and eat leftovers tomorrow, what will you be thankful for? I would love to hear. We should be a grateful people today. What are you thanking God for today?
Is this really a day of thanksgiving?
What do you think?
Today, I will be sitting down to a meal with my sons, daughter-in-law, and our adopted British son, Matt (everyone needs a pet ;0 ) Janet and I have been longing for this day since our move to the midwest. We miss our family. Thanksgiving brings us together today to really give thanks for the grace of God and the blessing of family.
As with all holidays, I continue to be amazed by the return to spiritual principles that a day like this brings. Our nation does, at least for a moment, seems to think about giving and sharing and being thankful. Tomorrow will be a different story. People will be pushing, shoving and grabbing as the stores open for the busy shopping season. That part of the season bothers me, especially as we deal with the poor and cast-offs of society. With the giving of gifts often comes the throwing away of the homeless, except for the occassional soup kitchen meal or toyshop.
My thoughts also turn to Iraq and Afghanistan today. We have lost over 3000 soldiers and Marines in the war. Unfortunately, there have been by some estimations nearly 100,000 civilians killed in this "campaign for freedom" as our President calls it. No matter your political persuasion, war is bloody, senseless and painful. Elections are not enough for the Iraqis and the people of Afghanistan, eventually, there must be infrastructure and services from a government free from corruption for them to have something for which they can be thankful.
So as you sit around a table today and eat leftovers tomorrow, what will you be thankful for? I would love to hear. We should be a grateful people today. What are you thanking God for today?
Is this really a day of thanksgiving?
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 9:43 AM
3 Comments:
Bother Larry,
Today is one of my favorite days too. For me, however, I find myself at work (not by choice) thinking of a quassi-homeless man named Fabian with whom I had the privilege of befriending six years ago while as an Officer serving in Middletown Connecticut.
Fabian was known as the "town drunk" who had come to the Army for assistance for many years. As I entered my new appointment, I found that my predecessors left specific instructions/suggestions for me as to how to "take care of him (Fabian)" whenever he would stumble in for Holiness meeting. Fabian showed up for Church just as my predecessor said he would. Initially, I thought he had arrived only to check out the "new guy." Upon first meeting him, I couldn't get past the awful stench of alcohol and urine, but I greeted him with a hearty hand-shake, just as I would have had the President or the General himself/herself had decided to show up for Church.
Fabian drowned a months later. He had been in a terrible boating accident with friends on the Connecticut River. You see, not only was Fabian the town drunk, he was also born to a very wealthy and influential family. This I learned while attending and participating in his memorial service that the town clergy association had decided to honor him with. Fabian was well known about town - not only for his often drunken status - but because he had regularly supported most of the local churches in town financially because of their kindness whilst in his druken state. The SA benefited from his generosity too!
The most important piece of information I learned about Fabian that day came from his parents... that he had in fact accepted Jesus as his Saviour just days before his accident. Despite the fact that he was an alcoholic, that his life was in ruin -he had a real relationship with the Saviour.
I'm thaknful this day for having meet and known Fabian. Unbeknownst to Fabian, he taught me a valuable lesson...that one doesn't have to have it "all together" to come to the saving knowlege of Jesus Christ.
As I see it..."It's who you know that counts." Scripture says, "I want to know Christ...." (and if who you know determines where you go...then I'm glad I know Jesus).
That's what I'm most thankful for on this Thanksgiving day at work!
Today is one of my favorite holidays too! I'm thankful for loads of things. Today especially, I am thanking God for my brother Tim. He told us he was going to work a double shift so he wouldn't be here for thanksgiving but he decided to come home! So our whole family and Ron and Dorine Forman and their daughter Heather were together! It was great. I'm thankful for my family for all my many mentors, for the continuing work of the Salvation Army (Tivos great! we paused the game and all watched Gaither for two seconds together!) I'm thankful for the hundreds of people who flooded into the corps gym yesterday to have a thanksgiving dinner and for the 75 volunteers who served them. Anyway I'm thankful for loads of things and if I continued I would never stop. I love the fact that families all over the country are just taking a break for one day and being thankful! Its a great holiday.
I hope your thanksgiving was great!
miss you guys!
What am I thankful for? That I'm not the same as I was yesterday, and that I'm certainly not the same person I was 6 years ago (a testimony for another day)! But what I'm most grateful for? That God sees us for who we can be and not for who we are!
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