Thanksgiving Race

If I'm honest, Thanksgiving always meant family to me. Extended family, gathered around delicious food, quality time, good conversations. This year I'm not with my family. Being away from them during the holiday season is hard.

Yet God provided for me in a special way this year. My friend's family invited me to join them for their Thanksgiving celebration. And what a celebration! 

I walked into their house and saw the beautiful fall decorations on the table. While waiting for other friends to arrive, I received a strange symbol on a card. In order to find our seats, we had to match our symbols with the correct verse reference placed at one of the table settings. In our proper seats, we read through the lengthy Thanksgiving story and sung a song or two. Then we all helped set food on the table: turkey cooked to perfection, juicy ham, and mouth-watering mashed potatoes and gravy.


Can you find the verse reference and symbol I have at my place setting?

After clearing the dishes and spending time in God's Word the fun began. Game time. They explained the rules of "The Race" to me, the newbie. It sounded simple enough: write a list of things I'm thankful for; the person with the most after eight minutes would win.

Everyone ready? Go! The adrenaline rush kicked in. Could I write as many words as everyone else? In eight minutes I managed to write down ninety-one items. Unfortunately, that put me in last place. The winner wrote 154 words.

More games, more giving of thanks, a time of prayer, laughter, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and homemade ice cream. A full and satisfying Thanksgiving celebration. I enjoyed and appreciated the intentional and focused time.

I'm grateful the family invited me to their celebration. It helped me thank God for what He provided this year, instead of focusing on the pang of missing family. I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving.

Comments

  1. Jan PikeNovember 27, 2021 at 7:11 AM

    So grateful that you had another 'family' to fellowship with this Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Deb RinikerDecember 2, 2021 at 5:27 PM

    Thank you for sharing about your very meaningful and fun Thanksgiving! Love your friend, Deb :) For Thanksgiving we always have a verse from God's Word at each plate about being thankful. Each person reads their verse before we pray and eat, and while we are eating we go around the table to share what we are thankful for. :) Dave & I are thankful for you Rachel and the work that God is doing through you. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rachel's ReflectionsDecember 2, 2021 at 9:02 PM

      Thanks Deb. I'm thankful for you and Dave as well ❤️
      Sounds like you have a good Thanksgiving tradition

      Delete

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