Just Pray!

In our wanderings as a family over the years we have opened our home to any "extras" who God might give us to share our Thanksgiving feast. This has partly filled the empty gap left by not being near loved ones. God has kindly given us some interesting guests around the table, from the mailman one time to some honeymooners caught in an ice storm another time.

This year we knew we would have our "family away from family" with us, the sweet Californians, but weren't sure who else. I asked God to give us somebody who might also be away from loved ones. I left it to Him while I thawed the turkey in cold water in the sink and thought about such things as whether to use paper plates for dessert or not.

Two days before Thanksgiving I was driving home from my ladies' exercise place and stopped at a light behind a little pick-up with the words, "Does Something Need Fixing?" and a cell phone number. A thought inside me said, "Call the number and get him to fix that broken door jam."

I fumbled for my cell phone before I'd forget the number, and got the guy on the phone. Sure, he'd be over in a few minutes.

When I saw his big friendly frame at my side door, his smile said, "Believer", so I let him in and showed him the repair job. All day the boys who were off school followed him around, handing him hammers and screws, and listening to him talk about how Jesus had saved him.

Someone in California had knocked on his door to share the Lord with him, and he finally sat down and listened and given his heart away to the One Who loved him enough to die. After that, everything in his life as a professional racer had done a 180.

After a relaxed day of hanging curtain rods and repairing jammed windows, including a trip to the store to help me pick out a really good door knob, he moseyed on into the kitchen to be paid.

I asked what he was doing for Thanksgiving, and he said, "In the morning serving folks at the homeless shelter, and then nothing in the afternoon."

"Well," I said, "why don't you come on over at 3:00 for dinner with us?"

"Sounds good," he replied.

Now, California is a pretty big place, but God is bigger, and He made that man be friends of our other Californians, who had arrived first and were already fixing tea in the kitchen.

Long story short, they had a fun reunion. Around the table we sang, "We Gather Together," and consumed in a half hour more turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce than the Pilgrims did in three days. For fun we spread butter the boys made by shaking cream in a jar onto the hardtack sea biscuits Rob had baked.

Long we lingered at the table, as the flickering of the friendly, yellow candles glowed in the orange pumpkins on the buffet. As we talked on, Sherry told us how she had been saved at age 28 and how thankful she was for the Holy Spirit changing her heart. The kids went round the table, thanking God for family, Maggie for the things in one's life that draw us closer to God, Bob for equanimity in difficult times at work, and Rob for a mom who would work two days on a meal only to watch it disappear in a few minutes.

After everyone scraped his own plate and the dishwasher was set, we put a fire in the family room and spent the rest of the evening playing American Trivia and Guesstures, divided into two teams. Too much for this sleepy mother, I dozed off in the middle of a dispute over which was the seventh largest city in Montana.

Later I woke to find the visitors had tiptoed out the door.

Ahh,Thanksgiving Day!