It is that time of year when we make our list of the things in our life for which we are truly thankful. I have family and friends that have daily posted on facebook announcing the latest thing for which they are thankful, friends, family, health… you have seen them, I have enjoyed them. I am sure you have set at a Thanksgiving table where those present each stated one thing for which they are thankful. I bet none of these are hypocrites, each I am sure is truly thankful for the thing in their latest proclamation.
It’s a good exercise. But…. you knew that was coming didn’t you?
Sometimes the thankfulness seems to me to turn into bragging, thankful for a loving family, yes I am but there are those that can’t say that, they are either without living family, all alone, or they could be suffering in a truly dysfunctional one. I have a loved one that has struggled in the area of family for over 3 years now, buffeted almost daily. When he hears me say I am thankful for my family what does he feel?
I have an old friend lying in bed for the next several weeks with some foot ailment that requires her to be bedfast. That same friend has a young daughter fighting cancer. I have a sister who has struggled with health issues for a lifetime. I have another loved one visiting a doctor this week fearful, apprehensive about his health. I am thankful for health but what would these feel if in their presence I said I was thankful for health, “lucky guy”.
I eat all too regularly, Thanksgiving is an opportunity for me to overindulge, I eat and eat and eat some more. There is now and I expect there to be an abundance of food in my house. I am thankful for food, I have never known real hunger but would my thanksgiving sound like boasting to those that are starving, that are fighting to feed their family?
I am thankful for my family from the youngest grandchild to the oldest grandmother, my job, the success I have had and the pay check I receive, my health, my two houses, my cars, the food on my table….my abundance.
Thankful, blessed, lucky, braggart. That’s the Thanksgiving of today.
The first Thanksgiving was a celebration of survivors, a collection of men and women that had suffered, survived, and were now hopeful. Families had experienced death, children had starved, health had become poor, wealth had disappeared and these early settlers gathered to celebrate the only things they had; an abundance of humility, a recent harvest, a reprieve, a break in the storm, and a little hope.
Thankful, just out of despair, tired, worn, humble. That’s the first Thanksgiving.
It is in the spirit of this first Thanksgiving that I now ask the question, “What hardship have you survived, what difficulty have you been brought through, today for what are you truly thankful?”
I bet the table is so quiet you can hear each other swallow a mushy yam and if you can speak I bet your answer doesn’t sound like bragging even to the poorest soul.
David
