Favorite Holiday
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Not only do we have all that delicious food (each cook brings her prize dishes), but families get together and share stories and events from the past. We get to meet new members of the family and mourn together for those who are no longer with us. One of our highlights was Mother telling us about her life – before she met our dad, her time with him, and giving birth to their six children – three boys and three girls. He has been gone fifty years, but she did not dwell on the pain and hardship that his death must have caused.
Instead, she told of her childhood, the games they played, the work they did, and the fun they had. She and her girlfriends would meet and sew together pieces of scrap material to make tops for quilts. She would make clothes for her dolls, patterned from pictures she saw in catalogs. In fact, she still had one of the first dolls she owned. Her early experience gave her the ability to copy designer outfits she made for herself and then later for us girls. She told how she met our dad and how she knew immediately that he was the one for her. When dating, the couple was always around other people but did have a “courting” room where they could be alone. Several young couples would often get together and walk as a group to school activities. In all her reminiscing, she never spoke of boredom. She told me later in the week how good it was to have spent time remembering.
Remembering is good for all of us – the Scriptures tell us so. The Lord told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:12 that when they were in the homes they had not built and eating food they did not grow, they were not to forget from Whom those gifts came. In fact, every chapter in Deuteronomy stresses the importance of not forgetting.
He said it this way in NLT: “When you have eaten your fill in this land, be careful not to forget the Lord who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.” He said in another place, “Beware lest you forget all the ways which the Lord your God has led you.” “Beware lest you forget what the Lord thy God did…” Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:9 that he is shortsighted, even blind, who “has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” Jesus gave the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper to help us remember – He said, “Do his in remembrance of Me.”
This Thanksgiving, let us spend time remembering – and in our remembering may we be thankful for all the ways the Lord our God has blessed us.”