Find Us Faithful

Today is preparation day.

While many people do all their  preparation on the day of Thanksgiving, certain facts have me doing a lot of preparation on the day before. Those facts (we eat at noon on Thanksgiving and there will be a lot of people) are now joined by the truth that I am slower than I used to be.

I don’t think I will be able to eat the turkey. I have been so up close and personal with that bird, what with all the washing and removing giblets and brining and rinsing and patting dry (I still have to put the butter and spices under the skin in the morning), that we have sort of become friends. I’m not sure I bathed my babies that well.

Turkey issues aside, today I am preparing and as I prepare, I am thanking God. I am thanking Him for the legacy of faithful people who prepared before me. I am thanking Him for the ones I will still be able to call or text tomorrow to say, “Happy Thanksgiving” and for those whose memories live on in the recipes that I am preparing.

The cornbread recipe for the dressing that I will make comes from a cookbook that is tattered with age and use. My first principal gave it to me when my husband and I married. I cannot think of him without considering his vibrant and consistent testimony throughout the years.

The dressing recipe and the recipe for ‘dirty rice’ comes from Aunt Lillian. This dressing is so good that I replaced my mom’s recipe with it. Once she began bringing it to family gatherings, it became our standard.

This year my husband requested ‘that peach dessert’. I searched and found the old recipe given to me by my friend, Jean. Her health is poor now, and I can’t see her often, but I remember her being my ‘mama away from home’ when my children were small.

Our daughter will prepare mom’s infamous banana pudding, and I am sure that one of the relatives will bring Aunt Linda’s potato salad and perhaps her pound cake. We inherited the family gathering from her when her health failed.

So many memories for which to give thanks.

So many lives lived.

We often question the importance of the things that we do. We downplay how God can and does use us. We can’t think of a single ‘important’ act that we have done.

Remembering, though, brings us to the reality that ‘important’ is not an individual act. Instead, importance lives in the little things we do every day. It is in the people we serve and the people we love. The conversations we have and the hugs we give are important. The care we put into providing for those we love is important. God is in the little things.

Steve Green sings a song called “Find Us Faithful”. The second verse goes like this:

"

After all our hopes and dreamsHave come and gone,And our children sift thru allWe've left behind,May the clues that they discover,And the mem'ries they uncover,Become the light that leads them,To the road we each must find.

"

Today, may you realize how important you are to those for whom you are preparing. May you know that what you do today will impact those who come behind.

And may we all be thankful and faithful.

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

II Corinthians 9:11  Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

Photo – Taken by my friend in Indiana this week