Post Thanksgiving Thoughts

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is such a joyful time to  gather with family and friends too. I love to cook and it takes 2 full days to prepare that wonderful meal that is eaten in 20 minutes! This year was more stressful than normal because of the extra trials I went through prior to Thanksgiving day.

First my refrigerator stopped cooling properly. It wouldn’t cool below 40 so that created a problem for me. Of course the repairs can’t be made until December 15th so I was not a very satisfied customer with the company we purchased it from. So we had to juggle things around to deal with our not so cold refrigerator.

Then Thanksgiving morning I was planning on stuffing my turkey and getting it in the roaster by 8 a.m.  Well I woke up at 5.07 a.m. when our power unexpectedly went out. I immediately called our electricity provider and they gave us an estimated time of 9:30 a.m. for a power restoration. What? I was expecting 22 people for dinner at 1:30! We had gotten more than 12 inches of snow just 4 days ago and have had several high wind storms recently. None of these storms caused a power outage. So why on this very calm non weather threatening night did we lose power?

It was time to call in reinforcements! I went downstairs in the silent house and rummaged in the dark for candles and a lighter.  I lit a few candles and an oil lamp that was nearly empty and wrapped up in an afghan. I then called on Jesus to come to the rescue. I felt so helpless and very concerned about the terrible timing of this outage. Some of my family were driving many hours to come to our Thanksgiving dinner.

My parents came downstairs to join me and my husband went out to start the generator so we could at least have lights and water. My mom and I started preparing the stuffing by candlelight. When I lit the oil lamp my Dad told me that’s what they did every morning when he was growing up. I became very thankful for electric lights!

The sun began to rise but the darkness persisted in the house due to the heavy dark clouds outside and it was now raining also. In my heart I was continually asking the Lord to please restore our power. Just before 9 a.m. the lights came on and my house came back to life. Yay I was so grateful for electricity in that moment. Our dinner was delayed but absolutely wonderful.

The power outage brought to mind a story I once heard about a visitor who walked into his friend’s house and admired the stunning view through the window. There were majestic mountains, and beautiful foliage surrounding a pristine lake. It was truly a lovely scene.  The visitor commented to his friend on what a pleasure it must be to have the opportunity to view this beautiful display of God’s artwork daily. The man waved his hand in dismissal and said, “I don’t even notice it anymore”. It had become common to him and he failed to appreciate the significance of that view.

We also begin to take things for granted and fail to appreciate all the things people do for us and how rich we are in the blessings of God. We have life and breath and strength. Yes there are trials but God gives us endurance to press through them. I’m thankful this thanksgiving holiday for all those small things I have failed to appreciate every day.