Turkey salt and pepper shakers inherited from my grandparents.
(I attempted to wash them years ago but the paint was flaking off.)
The
Day Before Thanksgiving
The
day before Thanksgiving
in
this blessed country we’re living
our
kitchens are a-flutter.
Don’t
forget the butter.
The
day before Thanksgiving
there
are pies baking in the oven
with
cinnamon and allspice.
Doesn’t
it all smell nice!
The
day before Thanksgiving
the
turkey’s still defrosting;
butternut
squash is ready for roasting
when
the pies come out of the oven.
The
day before Thanksgiving
there’s
day-old bread for cubing
to
mix with poultry seasoning,
causing
some to be sneezing.
The
day before Thanksgiving
celery
and onions are sauteing
to
be added to the stuffing
or
do you call it dressing?
The
day before Thanksgiving
the
refrigerator’s stuffed with everything.
In
fact, each one’s favorite foods for eating,
as
everyone is preparing for a day of feasting.
The
day before Thanksgiving
the
pretty company dishes need a quick washing,
perhaps
the tablecloths or linens need pressing –
and
there doesn’t seem to be time for everything.
The
day before Thanksgiving
our
country is preparing
for
a day of feasting
with
much thanksgiving.
*
* * * *
The
day before Thanksgiving
with
thankful hearts we’re intent on giving
a
prayer of gratitude overflowing
for
much more than the food we’re busy cooking.
We’re
thankful for our loved ones,
those
near and those far from home,
for
those added to the family
and
those now in eternity.
We’re
thankful for everyone’s health
irregardless
of what has been dwelt -
for
adversity teaches us to trust,
growing
our faith, which is God’s good plan for us.
We’re
thankful for freedom to worship
with
others in like fellowship,
to
pray for one another
and
encourage each other.
We’re
thankful for God’s Word
which
helps keep us moored
in
choosing to do what’s right,
to
stand firm in faith, not sight.
We’re
thankful for God’s Word which keeps us nourished
so
that our faith will grow strong and flourish
as
God’s Word is food for the soul -
sustenance
to keep us well and whole.
We’re
thankful for …
(be
sure to discuss what you’re thankful for).
Foods,
which God created to be received with thanksgiving
by
those who believe and who know the truth.
For
everything God created is good.
I
Timothy 4:3-4
Let
us come before him with thanksgiving.
Psalm
95:2
Give
thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his
love endures forever.
Psalm
107:1
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing
as friends and family join in one big union
around the table abundantly laden
with the garden's yearly colorful offerings.
But before we partake by dining
we'll offer up heartfelt thanksgiving
by coming together with a connecting
of everyone's hands around the table joining.
There's the large calloused hands of those who labor,
rather fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers,
co-joined with the frail, soft hands of one's great grandmother,
who may join hands with a pudgy-fisted toddler.
There's the hands of the ones who prepared dinner,
perhaps roughened and red from cold weather,
linked with antsy teenagers
who can't wait to eat dinner.
Hands that create
and others that bake
something for dinner tonight
which brings diners delight.
Other times two loving hands connect
though this merging is often too quick.
Fingers wearing rings engraved with "together forever"
and other fingers with scars and stains worn forever.
There are hands dotted with age spots,
lined hands that have seen a lot
of sorrows and joys
as their hands employed.
If only these hands could talk
they'd tell tales that you'd never thought.
Sometimes this familiar joining
is meant to stop fidgeting.
Hands with short fingers still growing,
slender fingers of one blossoming
wearing nail polish expressing
one's individuality often.
Hands that lovingly care,
hands that often share,
hands that burdens bear,
hands daily pressed in prayer.
Hands in all shapes and sizes, eight fingers, two thumbs,
in various shades, belonging to a loved one,
held together for a moment in time -
a familiar tie in which love binds.
Hands joined together with thankful hearts
that one day will no longer park
around this table any longer,
replaced by hands of a stranger.
Yet this stranger one day invited in
becomes family now known as kin.
This gathering around the table becomes
to new family members a heartfelt welcome.
May tonight as you gather together to eat
become a time when hands reach out to greet,
to connect with a loving heart
before dining begins to start.
Holding hands in prayer,
thanking God for His care,
then God's goodness share
through abundant fare.
Have you ever thought about God's hands?
Every day they uphold men and women
and care for His little children
for in God's hands there is a saving plan
to sustain and protect all humans
across all countries and distant lands.
He's got the whole world in His hands...
He's got you and me brother in His hands...
He's got you and me sister in His hands...
He's got the little tiny babies His hands...
He's got the whole world in His hands...
Here's some selected verses from Psalms
on which to quietly reflect on
about God's awesome hands.
Hands which fill us with songs
with grateful thanksgiving on our tongues
giving praise to God to whom we belong.
You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Psalm 16:11
You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great.
Psalm 18:35
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.
Psalm 20:6
Into your hands I commit my spirit.
Psalm 31:5
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