Just a Pilgrim Passing Through

JUST A PILGRIM PASSING THROUGH

This is the week we celebrate Thanksgiving. Not a new thought. We practice this ritual every year by pulling out our favorite holiday table cloth, china, silver or stainless steel. We make out grocery lists, dig out old family recipes, and

scrub the guest room until it sparkles. A sense of excitement fills the air for some, while dread fills the hearts of others.Those preparing huge quantities of food, typically the women in the family, usually fall into the "dread" category,

while those consuming the huge quantities of food, typically the male occupants of the household, fall into the "excited" category.

Thankfully, in our house we have worked out a system where I cook and Chuck cleans. That's fine by me. I enjoy the food preparation on this special day more than any other time of the year. Maybe it's because my family and guests always

seem to appreciate the effort so much. Just another way they show their thankfulness, I suppose.

I like the anticipation of the days leading up to Thanksgiving Day. I even like wrestling the raw sixteen-pound Butterball around the kitchen early Thanksgiving morning while everyone else in the family is still snoozing. Once he is safely

tucked in the oven, spitting grease in his pan, I sit back for a while and enjoy the aroma wafting from the kitchen.

I day-dream about the early settlers to our country. Pilgrims in search of a better world and a better home for their children. Freedom to worship God apart from a King's tyrannical rule.

Then I think about myself and my family. Just pilgrims, really, in search of a better world and a better home. On a journey, not from Europe to America, but from this earth to heaven, and I am at peace. Even though the smell of baking

bird calls me back to the kitchen with thankfulness for my present riches, I silently thank God that this world with its turkeys (you can read whatever you want into that word) is not all there is! A better world is coming. Not a world

devised by the evolutionists or secular humanists or new age thinkers, but a world created by a loving Father calling His precious child home.

A pilgrim just passing through on this Thanksgiving Day. How very thankful I am for that!