Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 

When you think of Thanksgiving, what images come to mind? Roast turkey? Pumpkin pie? Watching football with your family? Perhaps the Macy’s Parade?

I grew up watching this parade on television, marveling at the giant helium balloon representations of Underdog and Bullwinkle, and waiting for Santa to appear to kick off the Christmas shopping season. In my youth there was the annual football game and the return of old school friends. Now, later in life, I run, all be it slow, in a annual five mile Turkey Day Road race. This year I will push my three year old grand-son in a high-teck racing stroller. Our goal is one mile. All of these become the melting traditions of our family. They are our memories, our roots, they are sacred.

If holidays can be said to be a color, for me, Thanksgiving is a "golden brown" -- something other than the frenzied crimson of Christmas, the hallowed white of Easter, or the patriotic red, white and blue of July. Brown is a peaceful, earthy tone. It is suggestive of fallen leaves, dried corn stalks and landscapes at rest after the harvest. Brown is a color rich like the wood that embraces an old home, brown embraces me and calls me home.

     A peaceful color is appropriate for the day. Other than a trip to the grocery store, there is no shopping season in preparation for Thanksgiving. We will carve a turkey, with all the fixins add some special side plates to remind us from where we came.

There are no office parties, no tinsel and no obligatory gift exchanges. More than any other special day, Thanksgiving is about family it is and remains private and personal. There are no Thanksgiving return lines.

No one has needed to make that complaint, for even the most hardened of us recognize that undeserved blessings come our way. Some who are less conversant with the vocabulary of a particular faith might substitute "good luck" or "opportunities" for "blessings," but the fact remains that the majority of us are aware that life graces us with gifts we've done nothing to earn. Most of us absorbed the meaning of Thanksgiving Day as first-graders when we portrayed Pilgrims in construction paper hats we'd colored with crayons. Over time we learned that the day was for offering thanks.

 

     Christians have an advantage at Thanksgiving because we know who to thank. Our faith provides a perspective that enables us to see that boons and bounty are not something owed to us, but gifts from a loving God. Christians understand that even in hard times when obvious blessings seem scarce, we are still abundantly graced with life itself -- a wonderful gift -- and with the abiding presence of God.

           

         As you offer thanks to God on this day set apart, may the peace of gratitude flood your soul.

 

                                   Grace and Peace

 

                                    Rev. Ed