Dear Caldwell,
On Sunday, we considered the question, “Who was and is Jesus?” as we worshipped on Reign of Christ Sunday. This coming Sunday, we light the first candle on the Advent wreath and we begin a new church year, a new chance to deepen our understanding of what God was and is up to in Jesus Christ.
First, though, we pause to give thanks. As I drove my daughter to and from school this morning, I saw a City of Charlotte solid waste crew headed out for a day of picking up wet, dirty leaves in the pouring rain. I saw a soft drink delivery man stack cases of Cokes 7 feet tall on a hand truck outside a convenience store and pondered a day of that kind of labor, in this kind of awful weather. These men will work today so people will have enough Coke on Thanksgiving and our city will be cleaner. I paused and prayed thanksgiving for all the people who do the invisible and often thankless jobs that are all around us.
Thanksgiving, as with any holiday, can succumb to the routines and commercialization we drape over everything in America. However you are spending yours, my prayer is that you will find comfort from those around you and, most of all, the One who is never away from your side. So let us give thanks in two parts – thanks FOR specific blessings, but not in some vague, undirected, routinized way. Let us give thanks TO the one from “whom all blessings flow,” our Maker and Keeper.
If you feel like getting out, there is an unparalleled chance tonight to join with neighbors of all faiths in giving thanks. The Mecklenburg Ministries Interfaith Thanksgiving Service is an inspirational melange of traditions that leaves all comers with a broadened view of God. Our Music Director Anne Hunter Eidson is co-leading the music and Dr. Ron Carter of JC Smith University will preach. It starts at 7 pm at Covenant Presbyterian but I suggest any attendees get there early.
Finally, I was offered the chance to share with the readers of December’s Our State Magazine the hope-giving story all of you are bringing to life at Caldwell. My prayer and several other multi-media portrayals of this story are posted on the magazine’s website today here….
There are many other wonderful prayers and stories of hope from across the state. (A note: When the magazine staff showed up to record my reading, they brought a camera and had me say a few words. I would have preferred to have other Caldwell voices speak on tape, had I known about the video piece in advance.) Thanks to Dave Bradley for working with the magazine staff to share some of your photos.
Look for Caldwell This Week to post tomorrow, a day early, because of Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and safe travels to and fro for those on the road.
In Christ,
John