Fall Reflections

​My favorite holiday has always been Thanksgiving. Christmas rates high for Maitland’s awesome standing rib roast and having family around. Easter is a favorite for breaking out into the joy of the resurrection and new life, but Thanksgiving is the best. My earliest memories of Thanksgiving are going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house with my family. My two aunts and their families would also be there. I got stuck at the kids’ table, but it was worth it for the feast and for the fun of playing with my cousins. As we grew up, Thanksgiving shifted to my mother’s house. I looked forward to it every year. All my family was there, but family also included whoever walked in the door. We all knew that Mom would always have room for one, or two, or a dozen more. The only challenge was pacing what food went on my plate so there would be room for pie and other desserts later. 

Your memories of Thanksgiving may be as wonderful, or they may be not so much. If not the holiday, then think on other meals where hospitality was 2 extravagant and wonderful food and drink were abundant. That is a taste of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Thanksgiving is on my mind now. I was thinking about a thanks giving verse, and of course it is a song that comes to mind. “Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the holy One. Give thanks….” That popular song is based on Psalm 9:1.
I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. 
That is how I feel as I consider we have been on this journey together for a year now. I began as your pastor on All Saints Day—a day that seems like a thin space between us and eternal life in the near presence of God. We anticipated the Advent of Christ together, and we celebrated the coming of the Christ child—God with us, Immanuel. Then Epiphany and Lent, where we gathered with our friends at United Lutheran, until we came to Easter and the glorious celebration of the resurrection only to settle into the long green season of growth. I am thankful. I am especially thankful this year for our life together.
We shared all these seasons. There was joy, and there were moments of grief and profound sadness as we said goodbye, or rather ‘until later’, to some of our community. We weathered the challenges as a small part of God’s family. Family is what we are, and this becomes more and more evident as we look towards the end of this month and the gathering of family at Thanksgiving. It is a time to look back and count the numerous blessings that we have received from God over the course of the last year. Friends, family, meals prepared, and meals shared, those many small blessings that remind us that each one of us is a beloved child of God. We look forward also to the New Year that is to come and the holiday season that begins again with Thanksgiving. 
I am thankful for your care and support. I am thankful for your love for each other. I am thankful for the light you are to the world where you find yourselves, and I am thankful as we gather each Sunday to be fed with Word and Sacrament, and really awesome music. Thank you all. Thank you, God, for bringing us together. I pray for our continued journey together that we will share in joy, hope, peace and life in Christ.
Peace be with you, Pastor Jessie