Reflections on Thanksgiving
I love the holiday of Thanksgiving for many reasons and this year was no exception. This was however, not the typical Thanksgiving. My earliest memories of Thanksgiving go back to spending time at my grandparent’s house. Eating this huge meal that my grandmother had very skillfully crafted. Then enjoying watching football which always includes the UT and A&M game which is always fun because my family is split down the middle of who they want to win the game.
This Thanksgiving was different. This year my wife did not have off for very long and so we did something different. My mother and my sister who both work in retail had only a day or so off and my mother (who would normally cook a thanksgiving feast) had to work the night before until10:30 P.M. So we planned a little adventure. We booked a hotel room for all of us in a nice hotel on Galveston Island and then the next day way ate at this Thanksgiving feast at the San Luis resort in Galveston. Now when I say feast I mean a feast. They had mountains of every kind of food that you could imagine and for $20 you could eat all you wanted. The walls were lined with your traditional thanksgiving food but they had things like veal, mahi mahi, prime rib, shrimp, crab, and full ice cream bar and much more then I can possibly think of. It was a meal of epic proportions. In the middle of this meal something strange happened to me. In the past Thanksgiving had always really been about food, family, football, and just plain relaxation. Yet at this meal I have this moment of true thanksgiving. I think about all that God has given me. I thank him for all of it in my mind. My mom notices me thinking about asks if I am ok and then I just can’t help but share how truly thankful I am. Now some of you reading this are saying yeah this is kind of a preacherly thing to say and yet I promise you from the bottom of my heart I understand for perhaps the first time the tremendous blessings that I enjoy in my life. I say that because I very reflective the rest of the day. I think about the fact that all of the servers that are at this amazing meal and here on Thanksgiving Day so that I can stuff my face. This really does bother me. I realize that somewhere probably close to the very hotel where there are these mountains of food, that there are most likely people that do not have enough to eat. This bothers me so much that I blurt out to a server, “So what happens to all the left over?” She just looks at me like I am crazy. I am very serious though and so I ask another. They say that they actually throw all of the food away! What! You can’t be serious. Yeah , we have tried to give the food away in the past and some people had sued the catering company because they got food poisoning. I just shake my head.
I really do have so much to be thankful for and I am excited about sharing this new found thanks with others.
That night my wife and I decide that we might do something crazy. We see all of the ad’s for the crazy sales in all of the stores and I decide that I would like very much to have brand new computer system for only $200. So that night neither of us can sleep so we decide to be sneaky and go to one of the stores early, at 2 A.M. to be exact! So we drive up to circuit city and what do we see? About 200 to 300 people wrapped around the building waiting in line for these great deals. I am shocked! People are not only lined up at 2 A.M. but we learn that some have been waiting at the store since 10 P.M. for a store that will open at 5 A.M. ????!!!??!! I wanted a good deal on a computer but not that bad. We go home and go to bed. What a strange thanksgiving! Strange yet a time that I needed to fully realize all that I have.
Things that I am very thankful for:
1. A God that loves me enough to sacrifice His son in order to show me that love.
2. The people that took the time to share with me the face that God does in fact love all of us, even me!
3. A beautiful wife that is truly my best friend. I don’t deserve her!
4. A family that loves me.
5. A house over my head, food in my stomach, and all of the other basic needs in life.
6. Friends that always make an effort to let me know that they care. This is a gift that I take for granted far too often.
7. The freedom that I have to worship God , to speak my mind, to live where I want and how I want. I do truly thank God for this country.
8. Life in general. Each day is a gift that I look forward to unwrapping to see what might be in store for me. Not that my life is perfect, it is just that I truly love this gift of life!
