So much has been written on the holidays, I am a bit hesitant to add my experiences to the pile. But since Thanksgiving is tomorrow and Christmas is less than a month away, I'm already feeling the stress, and so to alleviate some of that, I will write. You should try it sometime, if you never have. It's a great stress-reliever. It also creates an account of some of the more interesting or notable events of one's life.
So, I have all the ingredients to what I am making and bringing to Jason's house tomorrow, all piled up on my miniature counter. There is literally NOWHERE to cook. I am sitting and looking at it, as if it will jump up and begin to create itself. I really don't feel like baking or making deviled eggs. My assignment was to make a million deviled eggs, two desserts and drinks. And I just don't feel like it. I would rather go and take a nap, but it's so cold in here, I think I see my breath. I'm waiting to see how cold it can get in here before I am forced to turn my furnace on. Now that I am on a fixed budget, I am closely watching every penny. Well, not every penny -- but those that matter. You know what I mean.
There is church tonight, so I must take a nap, or my eyes get real heavy in the evening and since I sit on the front row, I certainly don't want to accidentally fall asleep. Micah did that once and actually started snoring, which woke him up. Him and his friends thought it was pretty funny, but I did not. I gave him the glare which said, "You better sit up and straighten out, or I'm gonna smack you into next week." He, of course, was never smacked into next week, but he did feel the brunt of many wooden spoons and my hand on his behind more times than I care to remember.
Anyway, I will eventually get this baking and cooking done and Leah, Parris and the kids and I will all go to Jason's house for Thanksgiving. We will have enough food to feed a small country - why, I do not know. Because it's Thanksgiving. And because my mother used to make us eat every morsel of food on our plates, because there were people starving in Russia, I still feel compelled to do this. We will talk and argue and watch football and fall asleep after eating all that food, and when we wake up, we'll be ready to eat again. The one day a year that it's been ruled okay to be gluttonous.
What bothers me is all those people who have no where to go on holidays. Either by choice or by their lot in life, they are alone. There are plenty of churches and food pantries that give away free meals and food for the holidays, but food can't replace loneliness. Loneliness around the holidays is a very real desperation for scores of people. That really bothers me. I wish I could gather them all up and make a big meal and have fellowship for hours, giving them a sense of belonging, because we all need to feel that. We all have a need to feel that we are a part of a bigger whole. We need to feel that we are loved, even if it's by only one person. One person can make the difference between a life of sorrow or one with hope. One person can share the love of God which transcends our human understanding, but with that love comes hope. If we come to understand that Jesus loves us more than anyone could ever possibly love us, then we realize that we are never alone, and don't have to ever feel lonely again.
This is the second great commandment. The first is to love God with all our might, mind and heart; and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus said all the law and prophets hang on those two commandments. Pretty intense, huh. So who is our neighbor? In my opinion, it's every person we come in contact with during our day. It's the cashier at WalMart who looked a bit frazzled; it's the Walgreens pharmacy drive-through girl who really didn't know what she was doing; and it's the homeless and lonely and those who may be a bit quirky who don't seem to fit in anywhere. Those are who God commands us to love. And in doing so, in obeying His Word, He always blesses us in return. The holidays become another opportunity to put ourselves in a position of receiving blessings from God. Wow. That's very cool.
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