OK, so it’s not your typical “Christian” movie, but there is a whole lotta love for Jesus throughout.  This time of year, we will most likely gather amongst family and settle around a dinner table.  You may find yourself reliving years past wrapped in tradition.  Having seen “Talladega Nights,” I cannot help but LMAO every Thanksgiving thinking of the infamous scene.   Imagine “Thank you, baby Jesus” in a sincerely Southern drawl with hands thrown in the air for praise.

Let’s do this, people.  Let’s truly give thanks.  Not in a cliché.  Not in a quick thought.

Let’s wrap our minds around those whom we cling to, near and far.  Those whom we see daily, and those whom we never see anymore.  Let us give thanks for all that we have.  What we eat…  what we do… how we feel… they all make us.  But do they make us grateful?

How have you become?  Where did you emerge?  Who tilled the soil so that you could grow towards the light?

I am who I am today because my grandmother tilled the soil.  Thanksgiving for me, as a child, meant a lot of eye-rolling.  At her insistence (and as our matriarch), we would each take a turn around the table saying what we were thankful for.  She had spent all day cooking, so it was the least we could do, right?

While I don’t remember what I said I was thankful for each year, I do remember the eye rolls becoming less and the gratitude becoming more.  It was tradition.

Thanksgiving many years later would be last time we were gathered as a family.  The silent stare had replaced the busy-body who worked so diligently in years past.  She was there, yet absent.  There was a different version of gratitude in the air, invisible and sad.

It would be the last I would ever see of my grandmother eyes.  We lived out of state and needed to hit the road.  The old, yet younger, version of her would have stood in the driveway waving to us as we drove away shouting “don’t speed!”  We would honk and roll the windows down shouting back “love you!” until there was only disappearing space between us.

But, this time, it was her nurse who initiated our goodbye.  For a waking moment, she lifted her head to mine.  I had not seen those piercing blue eyes this bright in years.  Where there had only been a downward gaze, now emerged an upward glance…staring into my eyes, a mirror image of her own.  Then, in a movement not seen in months, she grabbed my hand.  I walked with her down the hall as she was wheeled into her room to sleep.  I spoke my goodbye and turned to go.  In my heart, I knew what it was.  It was her final goodbye to me, her awakening.  That is what makes me grateful.  That moment is etched in my own ever-present-yet-ever-forgetful brain.  I miss her like crazy.  In fact, these memories are what have made me and keep me grateful to this day.

I am so thankful for her and the memory of her.

I am even grateful for the eye rolls from my own children when I ask them to speak their thanks.

Thank you, baby Jesus, for that.

 

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

#holykitt#wtfmeanswhythyfather#spotthecross#christianblogger#blogginforchrist#talladeganights#thankyoubabyjesus#thessalonians#thanksgiving