November 27, 2025, the 331st day of 2025
Happy Thanksgiving!
Now comes the rest and relaxation after the busy day and the delicious meal. I am sitting down with another mug of hot cranberry/apple j... View MoreNovember 27, 2025, the 331st day of 2025
Happy Thanksgiving!
Now comes the rest and relaxation after the busy day and the delicious meal. I am sitting down with another mug of hot cranberry/apple juice as I write.
I used to think that our Thanksgivings would always include a lot of family and friends and require a very large turkey and lots of side dishes. It had been like that for most of my childhood and married life.
But as more and more family moved away our gatherings got smaller. Bit as long as my mom was alive, some family member or many, would come back for the Holidays. But when she died 14 years ago, that changed, and that gigantic kind of Thanksgiving faded away.
As more grew up and moved away, it changed yet more. And when my beloved husband died and years later our house burned down, it flipped between large and small, depending on who was hosting it or if we did it separately.
But big or small, house full and boisterous or quiet and sedate, alone or with family, it is a time to celebrate our thankfulness to God for seeing us through another year, and providing the ability to partake of a meal of Thanksgiving.
Of course as life changes our ideas of what is important to us may change, but we should always remain thankful. And this day is just one way to acknowledge that giving of thanks and our appreciation anf gratitude.
Some years were harder than others for me. Some years so many heartbreaking things happened that it was hard to breath in without crying, much less eat. It was like that the year my husband died, unexpectedly, the third week of November.
Still, even in that loss, we all knew it was important to remain thankful for what we did have, not dwell on what we had lost--life shattering as it was.
There was time to mourn before and later, but that was not the time. Remembering and being thankful for the good in our lives may be harder when sorrow happens, but it is especially important then, or grief and loss will color our attitude.
Every November comes that anniversary, before Thanksgiving. And every year is the reminder of that loss, before we celebrate God's faithfulness through all of our times.
It is not because we have had an absence of hard times that we celebrate Thanksgiving, it is because whatever we go through, God is there, with us.
It is not because we can afford a feast that we celebrate Thanksgiving, but that in the days of plenty or want, God is still faithful.
Thanksgiving is not a time to bemoan our losses, but to be grateful for all that we do have, especially the salvation we find in Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life!
Stay strong! Happy Thanksgiving!
NAN
