A Crockpot Thanksgiving

n many ways, my Thanksgiving was very different this year. Recently, God had been leading my heart to look for more ways to serve others. My son is always talking about the importance of investing in the lives of others and he is an excellent example of living the life of a servant. Well, I broke out of the little box of tradition that my family has always observed for Thanksgiving and I'm so glad that God provided us with the opportunity to do so.

My home town has an inner city mission called Target Dayton. It's an awesome outreach to the homeless and others who are "down and out". They serve a Thanksgiving meal to about 300 people and my family volunteered to help serve this year. By my family, I mean my hubby and I, my 2 adult children and my 80 year old parents. In order to do this we had to reschedule our regular meal time and rethink our own Thanksgiving meal. Usually, I spend most of Wednesday and Thursday morning preparing a zillion dishes for an abundant meal. It's a lot of work, but that is part of the fun for me. This year, however, I knew that I would never be able to do all that cooking and serve at Target Dayton too. The solution? Crockpots. I cooked everything from green bean casserole, corn pudding, and dressing to appetizers in crockpots and started them early Thursday morning when I put the Turkey in the oven. (actually it was a turducken - I'll tell y'all about that some time...) Then we headed to downtown Dayton to be blessed by people who were so thankful to not only have a wonderful meal but were thankful to have people who actually smiled at them and gave them hugs and shook their hands. It was overwhelming. After the clean up, we came home, took the lids off the crock pots, sliced the turkey, said grace and had one of the most wonderful Thanksgiving meals we've ever had.

I have a few reflections on this years holiday. First of all, I never felt so blessed in my life. Not only for the good things God gives, but for the human connection He provided for us that day. We served people that would have never crossed our paths in any other situation. I felt very close to God. Secondly, I expected to be exhausted. I have a bit of a medical history slows me down sometimes and especially on the holidays when there is so much to do. But not this time! I'm still running on lots of extra energy. Thank you, Lord. Lastly, I've learned we will never be too old to be obedient to God. My elderly parents ( fine Christian folk themselves) have not stopped talking about that day. They were quite nervous about what to expect when they got to the mission. But God used their natural talents of encouragement and converstation (My Dad, for one, has never met a stranger and Mom's smile melts ice) to minister to hurting people. It was an amazing thing to observe. It was an amazing day. We serve an amazing God.

Unseen Stars

Father, you created the heavens with all of its twinkling stars both seen and unseen. There are many that light up the night sky. Your created them from nothing to give us light and for us to enjoy. It is awe inspiring to see the constellations on a clear night. But those are the ones I can see! How many more are there that I can't see? Too many for me to count. Infinity comes to mind. Even though I can't see them, I know they are there. I believe it. I accept their existence on faith.

That's the way it is with the plans you have for us, isn't it? We can't see the plans, the gifts, and the blessings you have for us in our future. But we know they are there. Just like the unseen stars, we just have to believe and accept their existence on faith.

Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version)

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Hind Sight

One of the benefits of getting older is that hindsight is very clear. That's the reason for an "ahah" moment I had last night. To explain this I need to go back about 10 years. In those days my daughter was 15 and having all the teenage anguishes. One of them was the feeling that she had no friends - especially at church. I remember being there as a teen, don't you. But as I observed her situation, I realized that she wasn't just feeling that way, there was truly a "click" in the teen group at church and she was not invited to join. I could write all day about how frustrating that was for me as a parent and how I feel about those kids (who are adults today). But as a mom who could feel her daughter's pain, I used to pray that just one of those kids would open their eyes and see what a wonderful kid my daughter was. But it never happened. It was hard for me to understand why God wouldn't answer our prayers and give her a friend in her church group. Well, fast forward to today and I am happy to say that I have a happy, well adjusted daughter who is a true servant of the Lord. She has a kind and sensitive heart and reaches out to anyone who is feeling down. Last night I was surfing around on the net and on Facebook and came across some profiles of many of those kids (from good Christian homes I might add)and I checked out some of their photo albums. An overwhelming theme in these pictures was everyone holding beer bottles looking like they were ready to topple over, people flipping the finger to the camera, and lots of profanity in their descriptions. It broke my heart. That's when the "ahah" moment came. My precious heavenly Father was protecting my daughter from the influence of a group of kids that had no spiritual depth and who only were Christians in words and not life. He could see the hearts of those kids all those years ago. I could only see their church attendance. He knew my daughter deserved better. Thank you Lord. You always know what is best.

Never Retire

There are times that I am so in love with Jesus and how He works in our lives that I can hardly stand it. Just this last Saturday at our House Church meeting, we were studying the spiritual discipline of service. One of the teaching points was that as Christians, we never retire from service. At that time I pointed out that my parents, in their 80's were perfect examples of that concept. About 2 years ago, they decided to open their house for a biweekly House Church meeting. We've had a regular group meeting ever since and it has developed into an awesome community of believers who eat together, study together, pray together and serve together. But this last Sunday I was so overwhelmed by the power of Jesus I couldn't keep the tears from rolling down my cheeks as I witnessed a further example of this.

My husband and I take my parents to a weekly gathering of house church folks who meet for praise, worship and teaching. They rely on us for this because they don't drive anymore. My mom in particular hasn't driven for years because of poor eyesight as well as the struggles with confusion that is common to senior citizens. Additionally, she has arthritis and is sometimes prone to falling. Last Sunday, after the Pastor was finished with his sermon, Mom noticed a college age girl in the pew in front of her with her head in her hands and weeping. My sweet Mother,who gets lost on her way to the church bathroom, immediately moved up to her and put her arm around her. The girl just melted into Mom's shoulder and the 2 of them moved up to the altar. As soon as they got up there, Mom, in spite of her arthritic bones ,hit her knees along with this college girl. Now I don't know what they were praying about but I know that the girls seemed so glad to have this grandma-type holding her and stroking her hair while she cried. It was such a God-moment and was the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time. They were still praying together when the service was dismissed so I moved up to the front pew and sat close to where they were kneeling. When they were done and said their goodbyes, I moved up to Mom and helped her up off the floor. Now Mom doesn't remember the girls name and still has trouble remembering what day of the week it is. But that didn't stop her from being used by God in an act of love and service. I guess it's true. We never retire from serving the Lord.