Thanksgiving Time

On Thursday, if you are like most Americans you’ll wake up to watch Santa Claus come to town in Macy’s parade. Some want-to-be TV star will tell you corny jokes as they announce the high school marching bands from places like Walla Walla, Washington and Eureka, Illinois and describe the massive floating cows sponsored by The American Dairy Council making their way down 34th Street in New York City. You may watch a little football (if like most years, and it pains me to write this, the Lions will probably lose and the Cowboys will probably win). Sometime in between the Lions giving up a fumble return for a touchdown and their offensive line allowing the quarterback to be sacked for the gazillionth time, family and friends will gather.


Uncle Joe will be there talking about his gout. Aunt Betty Lou will announce she is dieting this Thanksgiving and will only eat one small piece of Suzie’s special deluxe pumpkin pie. Cousin Billy Bob will be talking all things NASCAR (How can one person know the name of every pit crew member of Junior and Jimmy Johnson’s teams?). There will be the assorted others that remind you that most families are like the old Clint Eastwood movie: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The house will be loud. Football games in one room, video games in the other, and the un-liberated women folk in the kitchen.

The roasting turkey makes your mouth water. The time you’ve been waiting for will soon arrive.

Sneaking a peak in the kitchen, the room from which you’ve been banished with threats of “finding something for you to do” gives you an eyeful of that fabulous bird. Young Tom has been groomed, basted, stuffed and prepared for this moment. The thought of grabbing a leg and eating like a medieval king has you giddy with anticipation. If you have a mechanical engineering degree, you take time to plot out the adequate space on your dinner plate for the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet taters, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, tiny carrots, celery, olives, corn, dinner rolls, cheese ball, coleslaw, red jello salad with bananas, crackers, and of course, Aunt Suzie’s special deluxe pumpkin pie with lots and lots of whipped cream. If you don’t have a mechanical engineering degree, you might need to find a bigger plate.

Finally, oh so finally, at the perfect moment, when hunger and anticipation meet someone will say, “Dinner Time!” and everyone will take their places around the table, (or if it was like when I was a kid--the adults will be at the “Big People Table,” and the kids will be at the “Little People table”), then someone will pray a prayer of thanks and the eating will commence. Not much talking is happening now, unless it’s to ask cousin Jimbo to pass the salt and pepper. A wise man once told me, “Every time you talk you miss a bite.” No one wants to miss any bites. Not today. The sounds of eating fill the room.

Following that last bite of pumpkin pie, there will be more football, sleeping, and maybe a family game or movie. If living in Kansas City, maybe the tradition is to head to the Country Club Plaza along with a couple hundred thousand of your closest friends and watch the mayor or some such Kansas City pooh-bah flip the Plaza Christmas Light switch. “Oooo! Ahhh!” everyone says like they were a Who from Whoville on Christmas morning.

Finally, with a tummy full of turkey and a heart full of the sights and sounds of the season, you will put your head on a comfy pillow and say: It’s been a good day.

Unfortunately not all will have such a Norman Rockwell-esque day. Many in our world can not even dream of the meal I just described. Carefree thoughts of parades, football games and pretty lights are pushed from their minds because of the real life horrors of wars or hunger or homelessness or loneliness or oppression. For many, there is no soft pillow at the end of the day, and for that matter no bed and no home.

I know, I know we can’t box up our turkey and send it to the poor and hungry in the remote corners of the world. I’m sure the gravy would leak out of the box. And I’m not suggesting that we give up our traditions of an American Thanksgiving Day. But I am also not suggesting that we do nothing. Just this week, I saw a cartoon. There was pictured hundreds and hundreds of people lined up as far as you could see and each person was thinking the exact same thing: “What can I do? I’m just one person.” Maybe you can’t change the world— but you can make a difference. And together we can make an even bigger difference.

This Thanksgiving take time to be thankful. Be thankful for all the privileges and blessings that you have been given, but also think of ways to show your thankfulness. It’s not too late to invite a lonely senior citizen over for dinner (what’s a couple more people around the table?). Maybe showing your thankfulness can be accomplished by grabbing a family this Sunday from Our Central Cares Tree—and providing Christmas to a needy family, maybe you could sponsor a senior high student to go on the El Salvador trip and possibly change his or her life forever. Maybe you will make plans to help out at the Rescue Mission this month. The point is: Do Something. Don’t just say you’re thankful, act like you are thankful. Share the blessings that God has given you.