Scripture reveals how dysfunctional families and people have always been, and this truth should bring us comfort.

God does not use perfect families and perfect people to do His will; it’s quite the opposite.

God uses REAL families & REAL people.

The Thanksgiving holiday is special to most Americans for a variety of reasons, and many of us will pull up our chairs around tables this week and place some of our favorite foods onto our plates.
Even so, each of us may find ourselves seated around a table this holiday season with people within our own families who we do not particularly enjoy, next to family members who are (well) just—Odd.  We may be seated next to family members we just—Endure for a day.

Maybe we are the odd one, the one other family members just—Endure.

Yet even so, we know  God creates people as part of a family, a bloodline, and as a connected ancestry.
So, when we lend a helping hand at the family gathering and do our part to help our grandmother set the table, we may knowingly place the table place markers in a particular way that suits our likes and dislikes.  That’s right, we may purposely place our name so that we are not sitting next to those family members who are more—Odd than the others, who we just—Endure—for the Thanksgiving meal.

BUT…What if instead we did the opposite?
BUT…What if instead we placed our table place marker next to the “oddest,” most eccentric member of our family.
AND…What if someone else were setting the table this year?

AND…Would WE be the one who the others were thinking of when the words ODD and ECCENTRIC were used?

In reading down my prayer list this morning, I read name after name of those who I have added during this past year—Post-Covid.  As I read the names, I was reminded of the strange way my family celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday last year in 2020.  We gathered in separate homes, in small groups, and we shared texted photos of our family seated together—-but separate.

In remembering last year, as strange as our families may be to the world, we are still family, still blood, and still connected by a shared ancestry.  So, as we pull up our chairs this year, as we gather together in the SAME location, and as we position the name place markers onto the plates sitting upon a SHARED table, let us count our blessings more than we count our differences. 

This year, may we take hold of the hands of the family members we oftentimes avoid throughout the year & may we pray together in a circle, thanking God for the family member’s hand we are holding. 

It could JUST BE—That the family member’s hand we are holding may be—THE SAME ONE—who is praying the—SAME PRAYER—as they hold OUR Hand!

The Bible is filled with REAL people.
The Bible is filled with imperfect and eccentric people.
Our family albums are filled with similar photographs—REAL & IMPERFECT & ECCENTRIC—PEOPLE!