Thanksgiving Breakfast
Thanksgiving Thursday, we snooze past the early morning NPR show a couple times, then trundle out of bed and plod down to the Avondale kitchen. With the morning lingering in our mouths and on our moods, we start taking out fresh vegetables and eggs, cutting boards, knives and clean pans. There's breakfast to be made. Dice the ham, the onions, and the red and yellow peppers. Beat the eggs and add a little milk to fluff. Fire up the stove, start soaking the French toast. And as we start, the morning wears off and things start to move.
We're out of shredded cheese – just use the sliced provolone, it's all we got. The recipe calls for French bread – we only have wheat. Anything sweet to dip the raspberries – powdered sugar, it's all we have.
At the end of two hours, the whole family gathers around the table, and by the whole family I mean Pastor Ed, his wife Kelly, and four of six guys who call their place home. The kids are still in bed – teenagers, you know.
Pastor Ed is still getting over the flu, so Kelly says grace thanking God for the food, and for the opportunity we have to share our lives together. And she asks God to help us in this time of Thanksgiving to appreciate what we have instead of focusing on what we don't have, which too often comes more naturally. And as we say amen in agreement, we open up our eyes to take in what we have. Pastor Ed, Kelly, Daniel, Andrew and Joseph. Of all the other things we have, it's the people that are most important – though our relationships are intangible they provide much of the substance of our lives. And the food before us – it's a modern day memorial of sorts, as much a remembrance as a pile of rocks at the gate of the Promised Land. You see, these people around the dining table are people who have prayed for me, who bring the word of God to me, who have been on mission trips with me, and who call themselves my friends even though they know exactly who I am. And as I remember all the life that we've shared together, I'm thankful to God who gave us all this to be thankful for. It's all I have. And it reminds me that all of this is possible because God gave all he had for me.