Today I'm in the middle of a 3 day decorating extravaganza, as is my custom on the weekend after Thanksgiving. All the winter/Christmas decorations (yes, winter...I change some of my decor with the seasons) come out of the basement and for 3 days I play with evergreen, snowmen and old Christmas photographs. My family seem to make themselves "unavailable" during this weekend....hmmmm...but that's OK, I'd rather do it alone with old Christmas movies running in the background.
I wanted to share what I hope to become a new Thanksgiving tradition in our house. But first let me give you some background. I am a follower of Jesus Christ which firmly plants my feet in the New Testament. However, if I could only have one testament, I would be hard pressed not to choose the Old. Why? I don't really know. God made some promises to me through the words of the OT when I was a new believer and I've hung onto them with all my heart. The very first being my life verse....well, not a verse, really, more like a life passage...you would know that it would take more than one verse to impact my life...it took a couple of paragraphs! :)
Anyway, I spiderweb...sorry. Thanksgiving Dinner. Do you like stories? One of the things we miss in our culture today are stories. Those narratives that used to be shared generation to generation. You know..."I used to walk to school. barefoot. 10 miles." Not really. I'm talking about the stories about life. We all like to hear about how our dads asked our moms to marry them. Or about how we were born. I know that stories are important to God. Obviously. He gave us tons of books with all kinds of stories. Stories about Him. About a people that He loved. A people that He would die for. He even instructed us to tell the stories...over and over again. He even gave instructions to Joshua to build a stone memorial to the parting of the Jordan River expressly for the purpose of causing conversation between those that crossed on dry land and those yet to come. So, I got this idea from a previous pastor of ours and I brought it to the table...literally. The Thanksgiving Day dinner table.
I bought 2 bags of river rocks (ideally I would have gone to the river and picked some up myself, washing and baking to dry them...but Michael's sells a pretty mean bag of river rocks already cleaned, dried and polished. I thought the polished stones were OK since those 12 rocks that came out of the dry river bed were probably pretty smooth) and I used them as part of the table decorations. After dinner everyone was given a black sharpie and we began to tell stories of times in our life that we knew God was present and alive in what was going on around us. Then we wrote a keyword on the stone with our name on the back...a keyword that would remind us of the story. Then after the story was told, each rock went into a jar that now sits on my fireplace hearth. It's amazing to hear how God brought your kids to where they are. You see it happening but you don't always know how they got there. And for them, the kiddos, they heard some stuff from us that they didn't know before. We had lots of tears and lots of laughter. And certainly some memories actually being made. The whole idea is heritage. To know the stories. To glorify God as the reason for the person you see. And it was so awesome.
I think one of the best things, and there were a couple of "best things", was the fact that at our table sat 2 young men whose whole lives are ahead of them. One, Katie's fiance, Carlie, has grown up in church and believes on the Lord as his Saviour, but may have never seen it lived out day by day as in our family. He now has an idea of the legacy that has been left for his family and that he can tap into it easily enough. He had 2 stories of his own to share....and while he was obviously nervous, the stories were vibrant and had impact on us all. The 2nd was Ryan. If you know us, you know Ryan. Ryan only had 1 story...and I say 1 with emphasis because it will no doubt the the story of his life. He chose a black rock. And it was decided that his would be the only black rock in the jar. He wrote "seeing what is important"...and he preceded to account for stepping out of the dark and into the light. The thing that to me was so cool was the fact that he, as a new believer, looks at Steve and me and sees maturity. He sees something that I think he wants in his own life. Our stories showed him that we haven't always been what he sees today. Our stories told of a God of Detail...a God of transformation. A God who rescues. A God who took lives much like his own and like the potter at the wheel, remade the pot as He saw fit. I ask you, is not this the coolest thing ever?
I suppose I won't know how it really impacted anyone until a future Thanksgiving Day dinner when we are all sitting around reminiscing about the days of old. But there is one thing I do know. God wants us to share our stories. Not just to our kids but to their kids as well. I hope this is a start to a tradition that we share at Thanksgiving meals for many years to come.
And just in case you are wondering....my life "passage" is found in the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah. Chapter 18. I'm sure it's no coincidence that God gave me that passage for my life considering from where I came and that which He has prepared in advance for me to do.
