Three weeks of planning came to completion on Thanksgiving day. The food arrived hot and ready to serve, despite the lack of facilities in our church building. Several families really stepped up and heeded the call to make themselves available and as a result, our community was indeed blessed. When everyone took seats, there were 80 people in attendance at the start of the dinner a little after five. Over the course of the next several hours, more people filtered in and ate as well. The message this year was “family”.
I was reminded of being invited to Thanksgiving with other people, and what an honor that was. When I went to peoples homes, I invariably met their parents/siblings and/or close personal friends. During the meeting, it almost confirmed whatever I had suspected about a person: either they had people in their lives whom they imitated, or they had people in their lives they did everything within their power to not be like.
This year, we invited our community to share Thanksgiving with us and meet our family. Our father showed up, and you could feel His presence. Many people commented on how home-like and welcome they felt. Hopefully they saw our Daddy reflected in our lives… Hopefully they heard that on Thanksgiving they were one of the family. Most importantly I pray they heard that they too could be part of this family forever.
I hope we lived our Bible, and I hope we never forget that the world is watching and waiting for us to do so.
