Thanksgiving 2021. The day is nearly over now, and it’s not what I would call a typical Thanksgiving. At least it’s not what I’ve known most of my life. Growing up, this day was about family and way too much food. I remember as a kid eating so much I felt sick the rest of the day. I’m a little wiser about food today.
I used to host this holiday for both sides of our family for more years than I can remember. Each time was a little different, but we always had many people around the table, and I did a lot of cooking and washing dishes! Now, most of those people have either gone on to heaven or they don’t live near us any more. Even after most things had changed, we still had my mom nearby. So sometimes the three of us went out to dinner. Sometimes I cooked. Last year we went to see in her in her new home and celebrated with my sister and brother-in-law too.
I think this might be the first year that Thanksgiving seemed like any other day to us. Just us. And yet, we are grateful it is still us.
Many in our family are widowed at our age, and there is no way to know when/if that will happen to one of us. So as we prayed together this morning, I thanked the Lord that we are still together and Tiger still greets us each morning. Next year could be different. No doubt next year will be different in one way or another.
We know that, don’t we? Life is never stagnant. Someone is usually missing at our holiday tables who always used to be there. Then one day they are not. And we grieve. I wonder how many of you are grieving today?
Or perhaps you have cut yourself off from friends and family because your life has not turned out the way you thought it would. And you’re angry or ashamed or simply lonely. Instead of reaching out to those whom you may think do not care, you stay secluded and alone and try to tell yourself you’re all right. But are you?
Maybe you are one of those who come from a large boisterous family and holidays like this one and the upcoming Christmas day are filled with crowded homes and lots of food and laughter. But you feel alone in a crowd and wonder if anyone sees you.
If you can relate to any of these word pictures, please know that you are not alone. A lot of people fall into depression at this time of year and suicides are higher when we have all of these expectations of love and Norman Rockwell old-fashioned happiness but reality for us is very very different.
I talked to my mom today and was reminded of how many people die during the holidays. I had a great uncle who passed out drunk in the snow and froze to death on Christmas Eve. My grandmother spent her holiday trying to figure out how to have a funeral for her brother-in-law.
Life doesn’t always give us smiling faces and loving families and good health just because it’s a celebration. But these things also can’t take away from what Thanksgiving and Christmas can and should mean.
Thanksgiving isn’t about over-eating and watching football all afternoon. It’s about having a grateful heart despite life’s circumstances. It’s about thanking God for each good thing He gives, even if we can’t see much good right now. Because He is good and good is yet to be. Sometimes we have to be thankful for the not yet.
Christmas isn’t about presents under the tree or any of the other hoopla that goes along with it. It’s not about making a profit and seeing how much money we can spend. It’s not even about family, though family can surely make it seem more joyous. The truth is, Christmas is about a teenage girl giving birth in a smelly stable, and placing her new born baby, the Son of God, in a stone feeding trough cushioned by hay rather than a wooly blanket or soft sheets.
Christmas is about God coming to earth to tabernacle with us, to live among us, so that we could come to know Him. And He could make a way for us to be reconciled to the One who made us in the first place. Because we can’t know God on our own. I hope you realize that. Knowing God is the gift God gave us when He came. To know Him is the greatest gift there is.
Christmas is about a birth that led to a death that led to resurrection life that allows us to have eternal life. It’s about a gift for which we should be grateful. A gift that takes all of the loneliness, depression, despair, lost hopes, failed expectations, and turns them into a full and abundant life in Christ. Knowing the One who promised us more than we can even comprehend.
If we look at these holidays with the right attitude, we will be grateful, thankful, a thousand times over for all that God has given. We can embrace the truth of His promises and find life. We can be wrapped in the warmth of His love and find hope. Then no matter what our circumstances look like? We will find that being thankful isn’t just for a day. It’s a lifetime, an eternity of gratitude and love to the One who loved us first. And sent His only Son into the world so that we might have life in Him.
~Selah
#livegrace #whyhecame #thanksgiving #christmas #jesus #gift
