Thankful — Becca Stanley

Nov 27

Nov 27 Thankful

The Thursday before Thanksgiving, for the second week in a row, we hosted a big dinner across banquet tables. This year, our sixth annual Thanksgiving Feast was hosted graciously and generously by our church. And after all the bustle and craziness of collecting supplies and setting up chairs and pouring lemonade and ordering turkey (because obviously I had to order turkey since Adam is teaching) - after of all of that ridiculous busy-ness, we all sat down at long banquet tables piled high with Turkey and ham and various thanksgiving side-dishes and glowing with candlelight, and together we shared a meal and swapped stories. I am not sure I can think of a clearer picture of the Kingdom than this sharing of food across a table with people from diverse pasts and presents who clamber past difference to kinship. Grace sneaks in when WE do not serve THEM, but we all pile our plates high with food and sit side-by-side. Communion and community inextricably bound, the mystery of Christ looms near in the sharing of pizza and macaroni and pumpkin pie from paper plates.

At some point during the night (it's hard to say when) Isaiah figured out how to help himself to lemonade from the cooler, and Jayci ate so much dessert she threw up all over her bed at midnight. I guess if we've learned nothing else from this crazy life of ours, it's to roll with the punches. Our guests ranged from our pastor to my sister to the old people from the place next door who started arriving exactly an hour early for dinner.

Some of our guests have been eating Thanksgiving dinner with us for more than 8 years, they have sat across the table from my grandma at my parents' house in the suburbs, and now they are high school students who visit Adam's classroom 24/7 (in their words). Life is beautiful and we sure feel lucky to get to live where and how we do.

As usual, I am behind on life and running mostly on fumes. We hosted actual Thanksgiving dinner at our house for some family and friends, and of course a few boys too. But I dont think I took any pictures of that night either, so oops. Let's just say it encompassed immigrants from at least three different countries, and ended with karaoke in the backyard - which means it was a success, obviously.