Thanksgiving Memories and Prayers

If you’re not in the mood to read, please skip to the fourth paragraph.

When I was a child, our family Thanksgiving Day routine was always the same. Early in the morning, my parents would bundle my brother and me up in our snow suits and we would head to downtown Detroit for the J. L. Hudson sponsored Thanksgiving Day parade. We would arrive early enough to claim our spots up front, right against the police barricades, so that we would be able to see all the action. Our early arrival also spared my father the task of juggling two little boys on his shoulders.

The parade included colorful Thanksgiving and Christmas themed floats rolling down Woodward Avenue. Numerous marching bands were interspersed, playing the first Christmas music of the season. The final band, as my childhood memory recollects, always played, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Then came the moment we all awaited. Santa Claus! He was mounted on an incredible red and gold sleigh accompanied by his assistant, a young and beautiful, Christmas Carol. Yes, that is what she was called. Santa waved to each of us personally, shouting out a joyful, “Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!”

After the parade, we would head over to my grandparents’ home. The four of us would join my grandpa, grandma, great-grandfather and my uncle. My Grandma Clements would be with us too if she did not have to work. The laundry room of the hospital never took a day off, so it was not a given that she would be with us. I now wonder if she volunteered to work holidays so that other families might be together.

At dinner, we all sat in the same appointed places at the table, with my grandfather at the head. Once we were all seated and the food was on the table, my grandfather would pray. He was not a religious man, but he always, and I do mean always, prayed before our family meals. He prayed using a small book of 366 mealtime graces. It was well used. In fact, I do not remember a time before his little book was held together with electrical tape. He would offer thanks to God, on our behalf, for all that we had been given.

I have found much value in prayers written by others. There are many reasons for this, but I wish to raise one for you here. Sometimes written prayers can express for us what our hearts cannot express on their own. This can be especially true on Thanksgiving. There are times in life when our hearts have a great deal of difficulty thanking God for much of anything. That’s just the way it is. It is close to impossible to say thanks on your own when you are experiencing the exhaustion of pain, fear in the midst of illness, the loneliness of death or the darkness of grief. While the rest of the world is laughing and eating Turkey and getting ready for a 4:00 a.m. trip to the mall, there are some who will be relying on the words of others to make it through the day.

You may be one of those for whom it will take great courage to say thanks on this Thanksgiving. You may be one for whom a prayer of thanksgiving won’t come easily. That’s OK. God knows you. God loves you. God understands the pain. And, it is perfectly acceptable to pray using someone else’s words.

Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,
And keep us all in grace, and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all harm in this world and the next.

(Now Thank We All Our God, ELW 839)

Comments are welcome. --JC