Learning Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning we spread the tablecloth for some memories. Little boys excited for banana bread and these scones. Two years we had known the hard giving of thanks in trial, then the awe of blessings poured out, now we gathered to learn thanks giving in a new way. Our family mended and blessed we looked to other’s pain and need so we might not forget, so the children might learn. Bellies full and eyes open wide as they glimpse how others their age live, destitute and forgotten with a bowl of food the only dream. Our boys stare at slums and landfills, shacks and starvation and ask why? We tell them this cruel and fallen world and we can’t fix it all. But we can each pick one child and give them what we can – most of all prayers and letters to let them know there is hope, a good God and our love.

Globes are studied, prayers whispered, geography lessons remembered, travel plans debated, little minds mull it over and search the faces. Each one comes to us as if by no mistake. And yes, there was plenty of silliness as always!

We traced our fingers and wrote our praise on the back of handprint turkeys. One more year of tradition and now a new one starts, the family grows. A week goes by, one holiday flows into the next. The tree goes up, the halls are decked. Packages arrive, presents wrapped and I watch most eagerly for a plain white envelope, our children come. My boys run giddy back from the mailbox to take a peek. Pictures, paper, envelopes spill out . . .

I know it’s not being poured out, we are not there to hold their hands or walk a road of total sacrifice. The world is vast and fragmented. I am thankful for my family’s blessed home and most fully focused on the little ones God has given me. It’s hard to leave a comfort zone. But now my children will know better the harsh world out there. They take a step and put pen to paper. Young men just learning to read and write they are generous with “Hello”, we will have to work on the rest.

They learn to how write a letter at the kitchen table. As I address Christmas cards they will spell out hope to a child a world away. They will learn thanksgiving must know the dark places, the emptiness and need in order to count the blessings. I pray that God will work and maybe one day our children will meet and share His words.

We learned about giving the gift of the gospel as well as food, clothing and education to a child in need this holiday through Compassion International.

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