It’s not unexpected. It arrives every year. And yet, there is something about the first snow.
To open the curtain and see the outside world blanketed with snow can still nearly take my breath away. It happens every year.
I am not a fan of the cold. My appreciation for the snow will soon be overtaken by my annoyance with having to shovel the driveway. Nevertheless, there is much for which to be thankful in this season. In fact, for many people, this is their favorite time of the year.
Gathering on the cusp of the change of seasons to give thanks seems like perfect timing. In each season, for each person or community, the things for which we give thanks vary widely. We give thanks for many things in common. We also have some very different opinions about what things are worthy of thanks.
Next week many of us will join in Thanksgiving gatherings with family and friends. As we do so we will be thankful to be able to be back together again. We will share and give thanks for food, we will spend time watching sporting events and catching up with one another. These are the things for which we are all thankful.
But the truth is, we will also likely gather with some extended family members who have deeply held, differing beliefs about what, on our common life as a nation, is worthy of thanks. This year as you are gathering, I encourage you to focus on what in the day, the time, the person with whom you are speaking, are the things for which you are thankful.
A recent Time Magazine article quoted Anat Shenker-Osorio as saying, “The most important thing isn’t what you are saying in a conversation. It’s what conversation you are having. We tend to be locked in a perpetual reaction mode (over against another person) and we find ourselves locked in a world neither we nor they want. Instead of being against, needing to be ‘right,’ say what you are for.” Invite your relative or friend to say what they are for, not politically, but personally. Then listen for what they say.
May your gatherings next week truly be occasions of Thanks – giving. Thanks be to God for the life, grace, and hope, God offers to each and to all of us!
Pastor Lamont