Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It is hard to believe it is already here. It is that day when family and friends gather around a dining room table and feast on the frivolities of favorite foods. We eat, visit and catch up on what has been going on for the past year, maybe watch some football and struggle to stay awake. The food coma from eating too much turkey and ham is knocking on our door.
Around the Perkins’ house at the holidays we like to share stories and memories. I’m not sure how this became a tradition. The stories usually entail things or events that happened growing up. Many a story has been told around my mom’s kitchen table with my kids, as teenagers, eagerly listening to the stories of grandparent’s childhood Thanksgivings and sometimes tales of their aunts, uncle and father, too. But one story that seems to come up every year we are together is one that happened several years ago. My grandparents had moved from Alma Arkansas to south central Kansas. They had bought some property and were moving a house they had bought. And when I say move the house that is literally what they were doing. They jacked up the house, hired a mover and had the house moved down some country roads to the new location. And the house moving day was…Thanksgiving Day!
The house moving did not go exactly as planned. We may have encountered a setback or two (or three or five). Moving the house off the foundation did not go exactly as planned. A flat tire was incurred on the trailer under the house. Some of the planned roads had utility lines the house would not fit under or the trees were blocking the way and had to be cut back.
Lunch was to be at noon…sharp. Well, that was wishful thinking. Each of the setbacks cost time. What was supposed to be lunch at noon was moved to one, then two and then three o’clock. Finally at four we were able to sit down to a Thanksgiving lunch. However, the fact that it was four hours late may have taken a toll on the meal. The ham and turkey were still delicious. However, the dressing and the baked beans… that was another story.
The dressing was, well, let’s just say… chewy! We tried putting extra gravy on it but it was to no avail. The most descriptive term used and still is today, was BUBBLE GUM. My mom’s famous dressing became known as bubble gum dressing. Chewy enough you could almost blow bubbles with it.
Then there was the baked beans. Ever have anything cooked too long? Let’s just say the moisture content of the beans may have evaporated in the four hours of extra warming. The beans had not only lost their moisture but also their texture and ability to be recognized as beans! Once again, a description that was given and very appropriately was BB BEANS.
Bubble gum dressing and BB beans. Not a Thanksgiving goes by that when I see the dressing and the beans I do not recall this story. And it is not just me but all my family along with me. Someday, I have a suspicion, my kids will retell this story as well as new ones they were part of creating.
Memories… Paul writes to the Philippians that he “thanks God for them always in every prayer.” (Phil. 1:6) The Philippians are the one who beat him, threw him in jail and then the next day said he could leave. The jail was the worst of the worst as far as jails go. But the Philippians are also the ones who supplied Paul with finances for his journeys, prayers and other things he needed for his mission ventures. The Philippians were also a major contributor financially for the relief of persecuted Christians in Jerusalem.
And here, Paul, says he remembers them often. Kind of sounds like families. We have the memories, the good, the bad and the ugly. But memories none the less.
Tomorrow, take time to do a memory inventory. Thank God for the memories you have, all of them. I like to think of the memories of blessings. Even the not so pleasant ones help to shape us to be the person God created us to be. Laugh, cry, work through and then laugh some more at all the memories. And then thank God for them all.
Now, I can’t wait to try some double bubble dressing and maybe have an extra helping of BB beans.
Happy Thanksgiving Bro. Tim
