No...vember...Thanksgiving for Family

Here's my sermonette for tonight and tomorrow. Thought I would share it with you :)

I miss you all. I wish we could be celebrating this "giving thanks" weekend together. I would give anything to be there with you...in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New York, and California, that is!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Peace-- HGJ

No flowers. No sun. No warmth. No leaves. No green. No…vember. When I was in 3^rd grade my teacher helped our class write a story about the month of November with these lines. Ms. Momchilovich was obviously referring to the cold, gray, rainy, days that are typical this time of year in the Midwest, not the experience most of the time in sunny Arizona. Because here and in many parts of the world, November is filled with flowers, sun, warmth, leaves, and green or greens for those of you golfers out there. But Ms. Momchilovich missed a big part of November in our story, the best part of November…Thanksgiving.

In our family, we think of the holiday that arrives tomorrow as a Giving Thanks Day because it helps us to remember what the occasion is really about. Not the turkey, or sage dressing or Grandma’s giblet gravy, the pumpkin pie or even Uncle Ronnie’s highly coveted Corn Mush or the Mason Family’s (my mother’s side) Beet Salad and Mincemeat which you have to serve even though nobody eats it. It’s not about the family gathering, the traditional family portrait, or even the game of 500 and the same family stories we share without fail each and every year.

It is about gathering before the meal and saying an extended blessing that includes thanks and praise to our Creator of the feast and all the good things that have been showered upon us in the past year. It is a time for remembering loved ones passed and recognizing family and friends present. It is the breadth and length and height and depth of gratitude that we experience and express on Thanksgiving that mirrors the love of Christ showered on us each and every day. It is the way we experience God through the love of other people gathered with us, whether they are our biological families or relational and church families.

For me this year, this Giving Thanks Day: No immediate family, but plenty of friends. No Corn Mush, but plenty of fresh lemons from the Hoffman tree. No family stories, but plenty of new tales to hear. No rain, but plenty of sunshine. No falling leaves, but plenty of desert beauty and plenty sun, plenty warmth, plenty greens and a breadth and length and height and depth of gratitude showered upon me daily and returned in Thanksgiving to God and to this church family. Amen & Happy Thanksgiving!