Thanksgiving 2020
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Always has been.
It seems that everything about this year has been different, and mostly in a bad way for many. COVID-19 has changed the way we have been able to live our lives. And now the preparation for and the celebration of Thanksgiving has been affected as well.
We are having most of our family over, with the main meal served out on our screened porch to help observe “distancing”. But for the first time, my Mother won’t be here. Especially after her recovery from an earlier surgery, she definitely falls into several “at risk” categories. Our traditional fare will be shuttled to her villa later.
Cousin Deb and her Colin won’t be coming from Knoxville because they can’t even visit her brother Rob in his care home. Jamie’s good friends can’t go to their folks’ home in Jackson because of some possible contact with the virus.
Makes me want to just growl…or something. GRRRRR.
Unemployment, friends in hospitals, long food bank lines, businesses going under, large numbers of deaths, masks covering smiles, and tight travel restrictions blanket not just our land but most of civilization as we know it. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.
We seem to think that things are worse than they have ever been. But, that’s not true. Throughout history there have been awful times as well as prosperous times. Many times there have been years ravaged by wars, pandemics, famine, economic depression, and political upheaval.
And now in the week of Thanksgiving preparation, my Bible reading brought me to Psalms 13. It is clear that David endured some very rough times too…times so bad that he felt that God had turned away from him, and he spoke of that in this psalm.
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.”
Psalms 13:1-4 NIV
Let those words soak in. Sound like anything you’ve felt in 2020?
This lamenting by David is not the end though. Our pastor, Mike Glenn, says that when you come to the word “but” in the Bible, everything before it is pretty much wiped out…and what follows…we should latch on to.
Now to the rest of Psalm 13:
“BUT, I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.”
Psalms 13:5-6 NIV
So, for Thanksgiving 2020, I can cry out my anguish to the Lord like verses 1-4. That would surely be justified. BUT, I can, instead, sing out my praise to Him for my salvation…for how bountifully He has blessed me and my family. And I can trust in what has proven over the years to be His steadfast love for me…as David did in verses 5-6.
I choose to latch on to 5-6!
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!
If you want to read why Thanksgiving is so firmly rooted in my heart, you can find it here:
https://www.skipburke.com/thanksgiving-at-nannys/
