Thanksgiving

Families around America will stop this Thursday and celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. My childhood memories around Thanksgiving were wonderful, but I’m not sure many outsiders would call them wonderful. 

I grew up in a family that raised tobacco. Our entire family would spend the days around Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving day itself in the stripping room. The stripping room is where we took each stalk of tobacco and pulled off the various leaves by hand. The stripping room was cold, and it was dusty, but it was also full of family, wonderful stories, and laughter. 

All the men would be in the barn taking care of the tobacco, and the women would be in Grandma’s house preparing the Thanksgiving feast. Finally, the call would come from the house, it’s time for dinner. Removing the tobacco gum from our hands was the next major task. Everyone would share a bar of “Lava soap” to scratch off the gum from our dirty hands. 

Then it was time to eat. I have no idea how my grandmother could cook so much food in that small kitchen. I have no idea how everyone could fit in that small house, but we did, and it was wonderful. The house was full of aunts and uncles and cousins, laughing and running and telling crazy stories. The staircase was a dining table for the kids, and it was wonderful. 

That was a long time ago. My grandparents are gone now. My parents are gone now, and most of my aunts and uncles are gone now. We don’t strip tobacco anymore, and a new generation of children and grandchildren has moved onto Corinth Road. Now I’m the grandfather and Janet is the grandmother. It’s our turn now. 

I have no intention of going back to raising tobacco. But I do want to reflect on what has happened and what is happening as this page turns in my life and the life of my family. It would be so easy to approach this Thanksgiving with some sadness and anxiety because so many of those who made our lives so wonderful are no longer here. That wound is still very tender. 

But there is something that sets us apart from the rest of the world. Something that I want to share today, on this Thanksgiving week. Yes, we miss our grandparents, the ones who gave us such wonderful childhood memories of Thanksgiving. Yes, we miss our parents who carried on their tradition, and now they are also gone. Yes, I feel the emptiness of this present reality. 

But there is something different that I choose to focus on this Thanksgiving. Instead of focusing on the loss, those who are no longer with us this year. I choose to focus on that which is coming. Maybe you’ve never thought about this particular Scripture to have application to the holidays, but I choose to focus on it this year. 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (NLT) 

And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 

14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. 

This reveals my hope for the ultimate Thanksgiving Day. When God will bring back with Him the believers who have died. Our grandparents and parents were all believers in Jesus, and one day Jesus is going to bring them back, bring their souls back to earth. Do you know what happens after that? 

1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NLT) 

Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 

“Together with them”! That’s it, together with them again. We will all receive resurrected eternal flesh and ascend to sit at the Thanksgiving Table that has been prepared by our Savior and King, Jesus. 

Instead of focusing on the loss this year, I choose to focus on our blessed hope. I choose to be thankful for the promises of God that are surely coming soon. I choose to prepare myself for the ultimate Thanksgiving meal, when together with them…we will celebrate anew. 

Luke 12:35-38 (NLT) 

“Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. 37 The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! 38 He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready. 

Maranatha, Hosanna, Hallelujah and Amen, 

Terry Cooper 

Lead Minister