Thanks Giving
My mother personally handled all of the cooking for
our Thanksgiving dinner. I remember that
when I came down for breakfast that it was obvious that she had already been at
work. The stuffing was all put together and
ready. I can call it stuffing because
she actually did fill the turkey, even though it all didn’t fit. But there was one item that she allowed me to
prepare – the fruit salad.
My mother’s version of fruit salad was a good example
of almost all of her cooking – fairly simple and straightforward. I peeled and chopped up oranges and apples; I
sliced green grapes in half. I had to
open and drain a can of pineapple rings and chop the rings into bite-size
pieces. Then I added a couple of cans of
mandarin oranges. The final touch was to
add two cans of ‘fruit cocktail’. The
syrup of the fruit cocktail kind of brought all of the fruit together, and of
course, it added the one or two little pieces of maraschino cherries that would
be the special prize for whoever was fortunate enough to find one in their scoop
of fruit salad.
One of the things that I remember most about Thanksgiving
was staring out the living room window waiting for all of my older brothers and
sisters and their families to arrive.
Even though most of them came after church every Sunday, it was still
special to experience the family assembling together.
This year Thanksgiving falls on November 28th,
my mother’s birthday, so it is a good occasion to ponder for a bit about the
memories and meaning of this holiday. Much
is written and spoken about thanks. It
is healthy to consider what we are thankful for. Life is full of blessings that we readily
accept as the ordinary, so it is good to pause and be thankful for those things
that fill our lives and make them more comfortable and pleasant.
It is more important that we remember who in our lives
we are thankful for. The people that are
near to our hearts that provide our sense of history and sense of belonging. The people that fill our lives with love and
laughter. The people that inspire dreams
and hopes and futures.
Most important is to remember to whom we are most thankful,
because everything in this world, everything in this life, is gift. Thankfulness is not generic; it is not merely a concept or a feeling. Thankfulness is a full recognition of the giver. As St. Paul reminds us:
“He is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in
heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and
for him. He is before all things, and in
him all things hold together. He is the
head of the body, the church. He is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be
preeminent. For in him all the fullness was
pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace
by the blood of his cross.”
Corinthians 1:15-20
So, as we gather around our tables this holiday let us
bow heads, and join hands and hearts to recall who and what we are most
thankful for, and to recognize the One to whom those thanks are due. He is the source of all that is good, in this
life and the one to come.
Happy Thanksgiving!
His Peace <><
Deacon Dan
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