Thanksgiving
by Charlie Smith
I love Thanksgiving.
I love the holiday, and not just because of the abundance of good food.
I hold dear a Smith table tradition of my mother’s oyster stuffing. And I’ve always been partial to pecan (puh-kahn) pie.
Thanksgiving stirs up a cornucopia of other cherished memories.
After-meal naps. Football games, including The ’71 Game of The Century, Nebraska 35, Oklahoma 31, when, yes, there was clearly a clip on Johnny Rodgers’ punt return for a TD that the refs missed. And remember how cold it got when that front pushed through in the fourth quarter?
Thanksgiving stirs memories of reunions with high-school chums during college break. One year, instead of coming home, I traveled to the Long Island home of my fraternity roommate, and achieved bucket-list goals of attending the Macy’s parade (so packed we couldn’t move) and skating on Rockefeller Center’s ice rink. (Full disclosure: Some beer may have been involved …)
Members of churches where I have served as pastor will tell you that at Thanksgiving and other times of the year I never said no to trying something new or different. (Those same people would be split on whether that was a good thing.)
Around the time of Thanksgiving, mindful that the holiday was first officially declared a national holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, I accepted a fellow Presbyterian pastor’s challenge to preach a sermon that holiday weekend in homage to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (recognized last week by Rotary President Suzanne). The sermon had to be limited to 272 words, the same length as the Gettysburg Address, though not necessarily match Lincoln’s 2-minute length. I accomplished the task, but was grateful for technology that allowed me to stretch the challenge’s rules, using slides on a big screen.
Likewise, in November, I often take part in a 30-days-of-gratitude exercise, reminding us how to give thanks for blessings in our lives. One year, I exuberantly toted around a white board and marker, handing it to anyone I met and telling them to complete the sentence, “I am thankful for …” (Selfies were then posted on social media.) Results were generally positive, although one colleague told me, “I am thankful you didn’t make me write anything.”
The Bible is filled with references to thanksgiving. John Buchanan, legendary preacher at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, says Thanksgiving is the institutionalization of the habit and practice of gratitude. Buchanan says that the meal around which we gather reminds us of simple, but important truths: The goodness of the fertile earth, the delight of good food, the gift of family and friends, and the reality of gratitude.
What are your Thanksgiving memories? For what are you thankful?
Charlie ~
Appreciated!