It's Thanksgiving time -- be thankful.

It is time for Thanksgiving.  Already I can smell the turkey baking and the pumpkin pie just taken out of the oven.  From the time I was a child growing up on the plains of Kansas, Thanksgiving Day has been a wonderful and joyful experience.  Thinking about it warms my heart much as the heat from my grandma’s kitchen would warm my body coming in from a brisk autumn day.

Not only was it a time for a great feast, but it was a time for the family to gather.  It was the one time in the year certain to bring us together.  In our family, we always gathered at my grandma’s house around her large dining room table.  To my amazement, there was room for us all.  There was always a place for one more chair at the table.   Then just as the food was brought from the kitchen and the women would remove their aprons and take their seats, my grandma would ask us to bow our heads as she prayed.   

For the first eighteen years of my life, that was Thanksgiving.  As I look back, I did not appreciated the blessings I had growing up.  So easily I took for granted my grandmother, my parents, the cousins and relatives that traveled to be together.  I never gave it a second thought about the meal that came together with seemingly little effort though I now know mom was up in the wee hours preparing the turkey.  It was all good.  It was always good, but that is what I had come to expect.  It did, looking back, have that feel of a Norman Rockwell painting. 

They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.  That may be true.

My grandmother and parents have been gone for more than a couple decades.  My sisters moved away to have lives elsewhere with their families.  The old farmhouse now sits in the Kansas countryside abandoned and slowly deteriorating.  The large table is long gone.  No longer are there smells and sounds of the holidays in the shell of what once was a home.  There is only the chilly fall breeze blowing in the house through a broken window.

As I find myself in Imperial Beach, California this Thanksgiving, I give thanks.  I am thankful for the blessings of the past.  I am grateful for those years around the table on the farm and for the love manifested in the meal and conversation.  I am especially thankful for the template my family gave me about what Thanksgiving was to be about.  That template still teaches me that it is a feast, but one to be shared with others as there is always room at the table for one more.  Additionally it is a template that reminds me to be thankful.

This Thanksgiving Day, I will gather with good folks from our Imperial Beach community at the church for a holiday feast.  These will be individuals who find they have no place to go, but will find a family at the church.  The smells of the season will be there lingering in the air for all to take in.  Large tables will be out with room for many to gather around. There will be turkey, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.  But before the feast, we pause so a prayer can be offered to give thanks.

Though the faces and names will be different, it is really the same Thanksgiving I have always known.  The food will be plenteous, the love genuine and the prayer will be about giving thanks.  And you know if I close my eyes and sit quietly, I know I can still hear my grandmother’s voice praying.

I pray you will have a meaningful Thanksgiving Day.

If you need a place to be this holiday, you are welcome at the Imperial Beach United Methodist Church located at 455 Palm Avenue.  We will be serving our meal on Thanksgiving Day from 11am – 1:30pm.  The meal and the love shared are free.

You know, if you ever want to talk about Thanksgiving or the holidays or anything else, please contact me at JonEdwin@aol.com.  I would be more than happy to talk with you.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Imperial Beach United Methodist Church

455 Palm Avenue

Sunday Morning Worship

9am – 30 minute worship with Holy Communion celebrated weekly

10:30 am- worship with Holy Communion celebrated 1st Sunday of the month.

Child Care Provided

9:30am – Sunday School for elementary children

At this church,

Our hearts, Our Minds, and Our Doors Are Always Open.

www.IBMethodist.com