DAILY BYTE November 27 was the day this year when people in the United States celebrated giving thanks – “Thanksgiving.” Since, however, we are in South Africa and not in the United States, the value of Thanksgiving traditions has been on my mind. What is it about the activity of giving thanks that is so vital and life giving? What do you do, if you’re not feeling very thankful? What if you feel like you have no one to share your thanks or your struggles with?
Well, I have spent only two Thanksgivings in my life outside of the US and away from my family. The first was when I was studying in England, living in a flat with people I didn’t really know. I was pretty much on my own.
I remember I had somehow conjured up the ingredients for my mom’s recipe for pumpkin pie and baked one for my flatmates. To put it mildly, they did not quite appreciate the squishy, creamy texture and pungent and unfamiliar spices. They made faces like (mm – interesting…). This was sort of all right because pumpkin pie is one of my favorite things, so there was more for me, but somehow, when no one else was thankful for it, even if they didn’t like it, I really didn’t want it anymore either.
And so, it sat, getting crusty on the counter, while I slouched into my room and tried not to cry. Because I pictured in my mind my cousin’s house in the former British colony of Virginia – a house that by then would have been busting at the seams with family and so warm from the sharing of body heat that they would be opening the windows to get some air circulation, as everyone sat down to dinner together with plates heaped with nourishing sweet potatoes and turkey and my beloved pumpkin pie.
Well, I called my family right when this blessed event of the heaping of the plates was happening. They passed the phone around from one person to the next, as I heard voices shouting We Miss You’s and We Love You’s and Hey, Hey, Hey - Happy Thanksgiving!! And before I knew it, they quickly hung up so that they could go sit down at the table. And I was left crying, picturing them in my mind, as they spent a few moments fulfilling their purpose for the day - giving thanks together by going around the table to voice their blessings from the year.
This year, I was away from my family again, but something was significantly different. This year, people from the church gathered to share a feast together and to take turns voicing our thanks to one another for various aspects of our lives over the last year.
Sharing a time for giving thanks is not just an American tradition to be saved for one day out of the year. It is a way of life, shown to us in the Scriptures! It is not just for people who have close family and heaping plates of food. It is for everyone – whether we feel alone, abandoned, ungrateful, or bursting with thanks. When we are without biological family, the church becomes our family. It becomes a place where we can share with one another our struggles and our thanks. And when, it feels like even the church is not enough to contain the struggles and joys of our lives, then God has promised us never to leave us or forsake us. Whether feeling thankful or not, we are never alone, and there will always be someone who loves us with whom we can share our lives. Thanks be to God.
FOCUS READING
Deuteronomy 31:8
It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
Psalm 95:2
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
