Thanksgiving can be weird. I think we all have a picture in our heads of what a perfect Thanksgiving should be. But often it's not that perfect day, it's more a holiday filled with anxiety and stress. If you're not the one waking up at 5 AM to start cooking, you're the one forced to akwardly reconnect with distant cousins and explain to your old relatives what you're doing with your life. We have to suppress our religious beliefs and political views for a whole day to keep the peace with family who seem more like strangers from a strange land. But I encourage you to try and make the best of it. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. If we stay close to Him, even the most difficult situations in life get a little easier. I thought this Charles Spurgeon devotion might help us all keep the right attitude...
"'Come and dine' gives us a vision of union with Jesus, because the only food we can feast on when we dine with Jesus is Himself. Oh, what union this is! It is also an invitation to enjoy fellowship with the saints. Christians may differ on a variety of points, but they all have one spiritual appetite. If we cannot feel alike, we can all feed alike on the Bread of Life sent down from heaven. At the table of fellowship with Jesus, we are one bread and one cup. As the loving cup goes around, we pledge our love and unity to one another heartily. Get nearer to Jesus, and you will find yourself linked more and more in spirit to all who are like yourself, supported by the same heavenly manna. If we were closer to Jesus, we would be closer to one another. "
For me though, Thanksgiving really is the best holiday. It can stand alone as a blessed time of gratefulness and fellowship. But it's also the gateway to the Christmas season! I can start listening to Christmas music. I get to see my family. I get to eat lots of food. Most of us probably think our moms make the best food, but my mom really does.
Growing up, my family would drive down to my grandmother's for Thanksgiving. I can remember one year dressing up as a pilgrim, sitting in the back of the station wagon, and waving to all the cars on the way down. (I was an "interesting" kid). My grandmother lived in a three room house. Not three bedrooms. Three literal rooms. But that was all she needed. Most of the time. Except on Thanksgiving when everyone she knew came to visit at the same time! It worked though. We sat at folding tables and TV trays. Watched football, Star Wars, or old Western movies. We all took turns standing in front of the gas space heater to keep warm. We ate cornbread dressing, potato salad, sweet potato casserole, and all kinds of pie! I ate until I was miserable. And just as soon as I was just slightly not in pain anymore, I would eat more. I still do that. What would Thanksgiving be if you weren't on the verge of throwing up? I didn't realize it at the time, but now I understand just how special those Thanksgivings were with my grandmother. You don't have to have a picture perfect dining room table with perfect manners and a perfectly roasted turkey to make special memories. Most of the time it's the burnt turkeys, political arguments, TV trays, the thirty people trying to fit in a three room house, and even the dead deer that your uncle just killed hanging from a tree in the backyard that make the most lasting memories. When will we learn that perfect isn't so perfect?
For a lot of us, Thanksgiving has changed over the years. We have new traditions, bigger families, but also empty chairs where loved ones once were. Life is always changing. Now I drive my kids down to their grandparents. I don't dress like a pilgrim anymore. No one goes to my grandmother's little house. She has Thanksgiving in heaven now. We all still have fun, but it's just not quite the same. One of my favorite things to think about this time of year is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. One day we will all be reunited. We will sit down with our Savior and have a feast! I imagine it being like the best Thanksgiving ever! What could be better than sharing a meal with everyone you love and Jesus?! I like how Maria Woodworth-Etter puts it...
"Oh, what a happy meeting that will be! Whole families and friends will rise up from old churchyards and clasp each other in a long embrace, which will last forever; mothers and children shall meet, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, pastors and flocks. Those who are alive will be changed in a moment, set free from the effects of sin, and be clothed with the glory of heaven. And then we will sit down to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Oh, what a company! Oh, what a reunion, what a gathering that will be, as we look along the table at the bright and shining faces! Friends and families. Apostles and disciples. Then to behold the dear Savior smiling on His dear children! Dear friends, will you be there?"
What a beautiful picture of what awaits us one day. If Thanksgiving is a difficult time for you, I pray you can keep this hope in your heart. And remember there is a place for you at Jesus' table. Come and dine and be blessed. 🧡
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
Revelation 19:7-9
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
John 6:35
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