I watched a show on TV this evening where one of the characters said that Thanksgiving is about ‘being thankful.’ If you do not believe in God, who are you thankful to? This question has always puzzled me about non-believers during this time of year. I can’t even imagine NOT knowing God and NOT knowing that it is He that I owe my gratitude.
This year, I celebrated (if you can call it that) Thanksgiving with a family I barely know. I’ve had one meal with them about 3 months ago and that turned out well…hence, an invitation for Thanksgiving. I must be good company. While I would rather have curled up on the couch and eaten a TV dinner or something while watching my shows on DVR like the true recluse that I am, I will say that the day was well spent and quite enjoyable. At the end of the day, I was thankful for having spent time with these individuals – as strange as they were. They are, after all, one of the most bohemian families I’ve known in my lifetime. Love those kind of folks.
Others were there at the party as well, so I got to mingle with a few people I’d never met before. One guy’s father was inducted into the Mafia at a young age. One gal had started her own business. One young guest showed up late with a new hairdo…hot pink. Eclectic is probably a benign word to use for this mix of characters that I dined with, but at no point in the evening was there an uncomfortable ‘party moment.’ Everyone was strange in their own right. Clothes, behavior, backgrounds…there wasn’t one normal person in the crowd.
As I drove home from the party, I remember thinking how grateful I was for not being the kind of person who would have judged these people. I was grateful for being the kind of person who welcomed and relished the odd, took in their uniqueness, and appreciated the interesting soup of humanity that was this group with whom I spent my Thanksgiving dinner with.
So, this year, I am grateful for who I am, what God has shown me in my life, and for who He has grown me into. With all my faults and shortcomings, I am grateful that I can look at another human being in whatever shape he or she may come in…and appreciate their truthful nature. I am grateful for the truth. I am grateful that I can recognize it and am not blinded. I am grateful for that Godly clarity that sees past clothes, positions, money and circumstances to see what He is interested in…our nature – ourselves – our characters.
I can’t wait to get to heaven. What a wierd party that’s going to be!
