Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. Turkey with all the trimmings. Family dinners and togetherness. Football games. Shopping expeditions.  Afternoon naps.  Homemade centerpieces and decorations. Getting out the Christmas lights and decorations.  Preparing for days to cook a meal for 6 hours that is inhaled in minutes. I always loved that part. Seriously. A home filled with wonderful smells and sounds and sights. 

Except for mine. I am sad. And a bit resentful of all those Facebook posts of yummy pies and turkey and stuffing. Tired of reading recipes for sweet potato casseroles and the debate over which stuffing is better. I actually gave away our thawed Butterball turkey this morning to someone who can put it to good use.  Because I do not feel like cooking a five course meal tomorrow. None of our kids will be with us, or grandkids. No parents or siblings, not even the Kazees. Just me and Alex and the dogs, and I will be spending most of my time at Transylvania Regional Hospital. With my mom, who had surgery over a week ago. And she is still here because she isn't well enough to go home. So I sleep on the little bench in the room, and get her ice chips and help her get up and ask nurses questions and try to eat the hospital food on an extra patient tray. 

So as I sit here feeling sorry for myself and glum, and more than a little bit jealous of those big turkeys with homemade dressing and cranberries, a verse in 1 Thessalonians came to mind: "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 

And I look at my mom in her hospital bed, with tubes just about everywhere. As she reads the paper and eats another ice chip. As the IV alarm beeps again and the nurse comes in and fixes it, and as mom puts down the paper and smiles at me. As my husband is at home taking care of all four dogs by himself. As one daughter is tucking in her three precious girls halfway around the world. As another daughter is awaiting the birth of her firstborn child. As my sister and her daughters drive to visit my dad and stepmom and brother. And another sister is welcoming her grown children at her new home in Florida. As friends call me to ask how we are doing, and send their prayers up on our behalf. And I contemplate how I am saved by grace, through no doings of my own.

And I am thankful.