Lots of people I know, when gathered around the Thanksgiving table, take turns listing their blessings. That’s a great tradition. I’ll start now by saying I’m thankful for my family and friends and my health and my faith and for you. That covers a lot of ground, so I’d like to focus on the “family” part of this today.
Family comes in many forms: Immediate. Extended. Inherited. Family by marriage. Friends as family.
And sometimes family is what you make it. I realized that one Thanksgiving Day many years ago.
It was in the 1990s and my wife, Susan, and I were newly married and new to our neighborhood. Right away, I noticed an old man who took his daily walks along our street always wearing a World War II leather bomber jacket—summer or winter. Something about him reminded me of the character Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. He’d regularly ask me to change light bulbs in his house, and about once a month he’d “borrow” the morning newspaper from our driveway.
One Thanksgiving Day, just as we were about to sit down to lunch, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find “Ol’ Man Johnson” (not his real name, of course) standing there. He asked to come in and eat Thanksgiving lunch with us. Let me say: He was not a great guest. He demanded that we remove our dog from the room, and he even complained to Susan about the food. It was a little uncomfortable, but we still welcomed him to our little gathering.
Later that day, after he had gone home, Susan and I talked about the old man and realized we were seeing him in a new and different light. Before that day, he was a curiosity (and sometimes a nuisance). But after sharing our Thanksgiving meal with him, we began to feel differently about the old guy.
A Closer Look
We looked beyond his cranky, strange demeanor and saw a person who simply wanted to spend time with others on Thanksgiving—even if it meant showing up unannounced, inviting himself in, and then being difficult. This man had needs, but he had nobody to meet those needs. Like all of us, he just wanted to belong. He wanted to feel like part of a family on a family-centered day.
Two days after this first Thanksgiving with us, we received a lovely handwritten note from him thanking us for sharing our day. He had beautiful penmanship; it was almost calligraphy-like in its perfection. Who would have thought?
So, every year after that, for many years, we invited Mr. Johnson to our holiday feast, and he became a cherished part of our Thanksgiving family tradition.
As we approach the holiday, I invite you to look around. Chances are, you know someone who needs to be loved—even if he or she isn’t easy to love. I encourage you to reach out to that person in some way. Expand your idea of family this Thanksgiving. You’ll be thankful you did.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! We wish each of you a healthy, happy and Spirit-filled holiday.
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