Thanksgiving

Should the Lord give us this Thursday, it will be the first Thanksgiving that my wife and I will celebrate without our grandmothers. My grandmother, Mary, and her grandmother, Lucile, both are experiencing the "far better" with Christ (Phil. 1:23). On top of my grandmother's absence this year is the selling of her home. While I'm thankful for a buyer, I realize that as the ink dries on the purchase agreement, I will not step foot in my grandmother's home again. A chapter that has been so sweet is swiftly drawing to a close. I will not bore you with all of my memories, but I'm thankful for each one of them. I'm thankful for the year she let my family live with her when we were transitioning back to Louisiana. I'm thankful for every Saturday lunch she made through the years. I'm thankful for all of the Thanksgiving breakfasts, lunches, afternoon snacks, and dinners. I'm thankful for the gumbo lunches on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for all the Christmas Eve gatherings, the finger foods & sherbet punch, and opening presents with my cousins. I'm thankful for the memories of watching football games together. I'm thankful for the hall closet full of jellies and pickles she had canned. I'm thankful for all the long nights of laughing and playing games with my cousins around Maw-Maw's dining room table. I'm thankful for every morning that I woke up to the smell of bacon, biscuits, and scrambled eggs (and for the secret place she kept the kind of syrup that I liked). I'm thankful for all of the 3:00pm coffee conversations that happened around her kitchen table and the intense games of dominoes. I'm thankful for the memories of playing Uno, Rummy, and Hungry Hippos together. I'm thankful for her proud displaying of all of her grandchildren's art projects (including the cow I painted blue in the nativity scene). I'm thankful for all the kind words I heard her share. I'm thankful for all of the food I watched her prepare and then take to others who did not have any. I'm thankful for every time she said "Let's pray together before you leave." Yes, the selling of my grandmother's home will be bitter sweet. A chapter that is full of more memories than I can record will be closed. But new chapters begin. New memories are to be shared with our 3 little ones and the little one on the way. There has never been a day in my life that I was not grateful to be placed in the family of Mary Graham. I'm so thankful for the Lord's providence and graciousness. I'm also thankful for the resurrection of Christ. For even now, my grandmother lives. And One Day, we will share a place that will never be sold and make memories that will never end.