What about the Least of These?
Café Menu for Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Today’s Special is: Truly Seeing People Around You
Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Aj Luck
Main Ingredient:
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 4:4-5 NIV
Entrée:
Two years ago, it was your typical Thanksgiving gathering; me, my family and one other couple. All of the traditional fixings were made and placed at the table. Grace was said, food was devoured and the carnage of the celebration was left in the kitchen to be tackled later on in the afternoon.
The kids began to play. The men started watching football and that left us, the wives, to clean up.
Even though it was a great meal, something deep inside of me ached.
I started thinking about all of the people that surround us every day, and I wondered how many of them dread the holidays? How many may not have homes or even money to prepare the “required traditional feast.” What if they did but they had no one to share it with anymore? What if they were all alone?
I began praying about it and truly searching my heart. By the next Thanksgiving, I contacted my pastor and asked if there were people in the church that he knew of who would be alone during the holidays. Curiously he asked why. I explained to him that my family and I were going to start a new tradition in our home.
We call it Orphan Thanksgiving. We willingly open our home to ANY person who is alone, widowed, divorced, single, college student, etc. who has no one to be with during the holidays. He smiled and said, “I’ve never had anyone offer such a thing! What a great idea!”
He gave us a few names and we reached out and contacted them. They accepted our invite! We invited them in and instantly dubbed them family the moment they walked in the door. They were not treated as guests but as royalty.
It’s our favorite part of the holidays. It reminds us that whenever we feel like we are all alone in life, no matter what we may be going through, God is with us. He loves us. He invites us in, loves on us, and treats us like the royalty He says we are.
Let us take this time of year not only be thankful for the things we have, but for the people God places in our lives, no matter the length of season. Let’s take that time to truly shine the light of Thankfulness of Jesus as brightly as we can. Amen?
Take Out:
As we walk through this Thanksgiving season, may we open our hearts and minds just a little more than normal. Let us try and think outside of the box and reach out to people in creative ways to show the love of Jesus. It could be by sharing a meal, a cup of coffee, or delivering groceries to a family in need.
I’ll go even further. Let us pray that God continues to ignite the fire of Thanksgiving in our hearts for others all year round.
Dessert:
Dear Jesus, You are the giver of all life. You tell us to live a life of thankfulness. Help us to remember to thank you in all things, good and bad, knowing that you are right there with us. Create in us a constant mindset of thankfulness and help it to flood over into every area of our life. May the thankfulness we have in you become contagious to those around us. In Jesus name, Amen.
© 2015 by Aj Luck. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Wednesday, 25 November 2015.
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