By the Way: Happy Thanksgiving

By Darlene Cahill on October 12, 2019.

Happy? Is it?

Those are two questions that have been repeating in my mind over the past month. I mean, can one be thankful apart from experiencing happiness? And can one be part of a community to celebrate being thankful, apart from being happy?

This weekend droves of people are travelling and visiting family and friends to commence the beginning of Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada! There is a high possibility that turkeys and all the fixings will be adorning dining tables. Neighbours, friends, and strangers will gather together holding spaces with the various parts of their lives, including the parts that are not happy or even worth celebrating. Maybe you have those tensions, too, and you are sitting across the happy-clappy types found in cousin Ralph’s or auntie Alice’s harsh exchanges. And you are asking, “Happy? Is it?”

The dark spots and the hidden hurts, the crumbling weight of finances found in an unknown future, and extreme brokenness in your circle of influences are brought with you to this gathering; you can’t just leave them at home, can you? And the ever-so loud voices that separate you from being wholly valued is your dinner date: It’s like the placemat under your paper-plate where the gluten-free bun is – it’s part of the feast.

This seating arrangement may not be the best, happy place for you to be, but there is a place for you! An area around a table that offers an authentic journey towards being thankful, with all the frail and unresolved fragments of ourselves. A table that not only has a union found in the morally pure expression of love, but one that love binds together in perfect unity – even with the cousin Ralph’s annoying waves of laughter and auntie Alice’s unrelenting labels!

Paul, in the book of Colossians, identifies believers (who chose this Love-Jesus Christ) to be holy and dearly loved (3:12). Paul struggled for the Church and wanted to make known the unity that is found in love (2:1-2). His call to not let anyone judge you by your food (2:16), idle notions (2:19), or harsh treatment found within the Body of Believers (2:23) was one on the path towards being thankful. As Christ rules our minds and hearts, our way of thankfulness to this “perfected unity” is discovered as we are prompted by grace to dwell around tables. It’s the possibility that bears with each other and forgives grievances that can pull us towards each other by Holy Love. It is in the harvest of this seating arrangement, where we are reconciled and bound together through divine graces of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (3:12-14). And also, speaking Truth to those very things that need to be put to death (3:5-10).

By the way, my prayer for you this Thanksgiving is that your table would be transformed by peace and gratitude, and in that may you have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Darlene Cahill is Associate Pastor at Glenview Nazarene Church.

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