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I love Thanksgiving. There is something about this particular holiday that tugs at my heart strings in a way that so many of the other holidays don't. Perhaps it is because it is less commercialized. Thanksgiving doesn't tend to get caught up in gift giving or candy or trying to make sure the secular message doesn't overtake the Christian significance of a holiday. Thanksgiving is what it is. A time for family. A time for traditions. A time for food and feasts, and a time to be thankful.
We have a few traditions that I hold dear for Thanksgiving. Some of those traditions are around food. We always have turkey and mashed potatoes and pies. Since both of our families have Scandinavian heritage, there is always lefse (looks like a tortilla but is made from potatoes – so yummy – especially with butter and sugar). The food is always abundant and delicious.
We also have special tablecloths that come out each year. Every person that we are celebrating with signs and dates the tablecloth and shares what they are most thankful for. If by chance we aren't hosting Thanksgiving that year, we bring the tablecloth along and still ask everyone to sign it (although we don't force our hosts to use it…that would be awkward). I've often thought that this would be one of the things I would save first in a fire. It contains sweet messages from family that is no longer with us. It has chronicled my children's childhood.
The other thing that I love about Thanksgiving is the opportunity for family and friends to come together and share in this feast and time together. This is a meal we linger over. We talk and laugh and share. We aren't rushing off to work, or school, or practice. We take time to enjoy the meal and each other.
Meals are powerful expressions of hospitality, friendship, and welcome. It is no coincidence that the Bible also tells us time and time again of how Jesus spent time sharing a meal with people. When you read the Gospel of Luke it seems as if Jesus is spending most of his time either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. One of the last things Jesus commands us to do is share a meal together often (communion) in order to remember him.
Jesus ate with his friends (the disciples), and he ate with the people no one else wanted to eat with. He never just made them some food and sat nearby watching them eat, he ate with them. I often wonder if we spent more time breaking bread with each other if that wouldn't solve many of our world problems. In today's time it is hard for many of us to manage family meal times, much less manage entertaining for friends and family or even people we hardly know. We would have to clean the house, prepare the food, make small talk… sometimes the thought is just overwhelming.
However, powerful things can happen when you take the first step. When you decide the house doesn't have to be perfect, the food could be take-out and the conversation just needs to start somewhere. When you realize that the family that you met may also be aching to get to know someone new. When you realize that a meal can be the beginning of a friendship and the next step to forming real community.
Who might you share a meal with this week?
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