AND THE LIGHT FROM THAT GLOW . . . . .

     Near the end of his life President John Q. Adams was speaking at a Fourth of July celebration.  Our two greatest holidays, he said, are July 4th and Christmas and they are connected.  Without the birth of the Savior there would have ultimately been no birth of the U.S.  I have good memories of both Christmas and July 4th but the memories that have the warmest glow for me are those surrounding Thanksgiving.  Please enjoy the warmth of that glow with me.


     I have seen and heard of tragedy and heartache at Christmas when hearts are most tender and sensitive.  My maternal grandmother died two days before Christmas when I was only eight.  My dad's cousin suffered the unbearable pain of having her son and his wife killed in a car accident on Christmas eve.  I could go on.  Those memories have not spoiled Christmas for me but Thanksgiving seems to not only be free of such memories but the memories of Thanksgivings are to me both lifting and healing.  As I share some of those memories may their glow bring lifting and healing to you. 


     Thanksgiving is the most purely Christian of holidays.  In colonial America there were often days proclaimed for fasting and prayer.  Then there were days for, in the words of George Washington, "acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God".   Reading the Thanksgiving Proclamations of U.S. Presidents from Washington on down is uplifting in itself until you get to the current occupant of the White House who in one Thanksgiving Proclamation credited "luck" as the source of our blessings.  


     Following the death of my maternal grandmother when I was eight, Thanksgivings were, until later years, spent with my dad's side of the family.  On one particularly memorable one (1953) all the men went hunting as was common in those days.   My grandmother Enzor invited the pastor and his family to the noon meal and her small house was packed with joyful and thankful people.   A small footnote to that day:  I carried my grandfather's double barrel shotgun that morning as I went hunting with my dad and uncles.  My youngest son owns that shotgun today.


     Sixty years ago (1955) my parents and brother went to Akron to spend Thanksgiving with mom's sister and family.  I stayed with an aunt and uncle and checked my dad's trap line in the morning then went hunting alone until noon.  My uncle attended the community Thanksgiving service where the pastor of our church, Robert Collitt, was the speaker.  He was not only an excellent speaker but had the gift of creating sermon titles that made people want to come just to hear what it was about.  His title that day, published earlier in the local paper, was "The Millionaires of Greenwich".   I asked my uncle when he came back from the service who the millionaires were.  He said, "would you take one million dollars for your eyesight, your health or, most importantly, for your salvation in Christ?"  I may be paraphrasing what he actually said but that was the thrust of it.  So, not only does the memory of sunny November days glow warmly but the eternal aspects glow even brighter.


     Then there was Thanksgiving 1959.  I was a senior in the academy of Toccoa Falls Institute, Toccoa Falls, Georgia.  Today it is Toccoa Falls College.  There has been no academy, only the college, since 1976.  I suppose we all could have waited three more weeks until I came home for Christmas vacation but I wanted badly to see Susan and my family and they wanted to be with me on Thanksgiving.  They left Greenwich late in the afternoon on Tuesday and drove through the night for 17 hours.  There were no interstate highways then.  Today it is an 11 hour trip.  On Wednesday morning I came out of first period class and there stood Susan waiting for me.  The previous nearly three months were the longest Susan and I have ever been apart since we began going together.  


     There was Thanksgiving 1962 when my brother Don hitchhiked from Greenwich to Winona Lake, Indiana to be with me at Thanksgiving.  Susan and I were both in Grace College and we would be married the following year.  At that time I did all the cooking for the two fellows who shared an upstairs apartment with me.  So, that Thanksgiving there were at least six of us at the table with Susan and her dorm roommate joining us.  Without the Presence of the One Who promised to never leave nor forsake us those times might be pleasant memories only, but His Presence makes them glow with eternal significance.


     Many Thanksgivings have come and gone.  We are nearer than ever to the moment when a number that no one can count, out of every nation, redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, will be saying, "Amen!  Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.  Amen!"