prodigal thanksgiving

It dawned on me today how much like the story of the prodigal son Thanksgiving is.

1.  At my house, you never know exactly who will show up to the feast until that day.  In a matter of  just a few days, I went from having eight for dinner to twenty for dinner and dessert.

2.  Thanksgiving is a homecoming of sorts.  Whether we return to the people and places with whom we celebrated Thanksgiving as a child, we return again and again to the same rituals and traditions, and the same comfort foods, no matter where we are.

3.  The centerpiece of the day is a feast; a table laid out with an overabundance of our favorite foods and beverages (none of which, of course, has any calories).

3.  There is often some sort of dysfunction:  somebody gets mad at someone else; someone does something offensive and soon the older-brother types are standing out on the stoop, brooding.

5.  On Thanksgiving, as in the story of the younger son, all most of us have to do is just show up to the table and give thanks for God's prodigal goodness to us. Is that really so hard?

Happy Thanksgiving.