In two days, 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 twenty-pound Butterball
around the kitchen early Thanksgiving morning while everyone else in the family snoozes. Once he is safely
tucked in the oven, cooking in his pan, I
sit back for a while and just 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!
~~
