From the Pastors Desk - October 31, 2023
Oh my gosh! Who left the door open and let the year fly away so fast!? November, already!???? I think of all the things I had planned to do this year and so many that I still haven’t gotten to. Oh well, I guess there are still a few days left in the year.
Since it is now November, the crazy holidays are just around the corner. Halloween has come and gone, and now we are looking forward to that huge, tasty Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner that we roll away from the table and sleep it off until it’s time to get out the leftovers the next day. Or maybe we get our running shoes on to go shopping at all the stores with their insane black Friday deals. I will tell you right now that I am not a shopper! In fact, I spend black Friday hiding! No crowds, no rush to grab the last “fill in the blank here”, no super deals that I didn’t get because they forgot to change the price in the computer- none of it, zero, zilch, nothing! Yes, you guessed it, e commerce was definitely made for me!
In total honesty, though, I find the secular part of the holidays rather depressing. Trying to get the best deal on “whatever” seems to bring out the worst in people. Every year there is always at least one news report about someone getting trampled or hurt in a post-Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas rush. Are the “great deals” and all the “top gifts for 2023” really that important?
That is why I am so thankful I am part of the church! Those of us lucky enough to be regular church attendees know and live what the true meaning of the holidays truly are. We are thankful for all that God has given us, not only the food on our tables, but also our health and our friends. We are thankful for all of our church family members! Our thankfulness is shared with others in the form of gift cards during the holidays and other items all year round too! We are people who know that it’s friends and family that matter, and that everything we have is a gift from God regardless of the season!
I am so thankful to have all of you in my life. I wish all of you the happiest of Thanksgivings no matter how you choose to spend it! I leave you with quotes from an important holiday icon – A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
“In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought…a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain Miles Standish were honored guests. Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: ‘We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice.”- Linus
“Sally, Thanksgiving is a very important holiday. Ours was the first country in the world to make a national holiday to give thanks.”- Linus
“But Thanksgiving is more than eating, Chuck. You heard what Linus was saying out there. Those early Pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that’s what they mean by ‘Thanksgiving,’ Charlie Brown.”- Marcie
Amen!!!
Faithfully, Lei Fahrner
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