Thanksgiving

by Sheila Walsh on 11/24/2009 07:11

I will never forget my first Thanksgiving in America. I had been touring with my British band and as Thanksgiving is a uniquely American feast, it was new to us. As the third week in November rolled around a dear friend, Joe Battaglia invited all seven of us to dinner with he and his wife in New York. I asked Joe to check and double check that it was cool with LuAnn for this loud bunch of Brits to descend upon her lovely home but he assured me that they were looking forward to it. The food was amazing as was the conversation around the dinner table but nothing prepared me for the desert. LuAnn asked me if I liked pie, which is almost like asking my dog if she likes to roll on dead worms. It was a resounding, yes. I took a huge piece of what looked to me like treacle pie and dug in. The moment the filling hit my taste buds I knew I was in trouble. What was this imposter posing as a pie? I managed to utter a muffled and completely sincere, "Mm, this is interesting, what is it if I may ask?" And then the truth spilled out, your great American 'lets take a vegetable, shove it in a crust and call it a pie' secret was out! Pumpkin! Pumpkin! A pumpkin is not the stuff well intentioned pies are made of; it's a vegetable people, a blooming vegetable!

Well, I survived and now, despite strong Scottish roots have to admit to actually liking the fraud pieJ More than anything, I love Thanksgiving. I love the fact that it is uncluttered by gift giving other than the healing gift of gratitude. As I sit at my kitchen table typing the note I am aware of things in my life that are less than perfect. If I choose to I can give them the whole stage. Some days I do and I feel weighed down by their words to me. So most days I relegate them to the wings and give the mike to what is always true and that is that God is in control, he loves me, his heart towards me is good and nothing can happen today or tomorrow that he will not provide the grace and strength for.

So my prayer for us all this Thanksgiving is that in the midst of parades, food, family, football and fraud pies we would take time to say-thank you to a Father whose love for us never, ever fails.

"Speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord. Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:19-20 (NCV)

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