Grace and Goofiness

November 21, 2018

It is good to have a day dedicated especially to the giving of thanks. We tend to think thankfulness is something you have to feel in order to offer it, but this isn’t true. Sometimes we give thanks in order to feel gratitude. Sometimes we give thanks and the feeling still eludes us. But still we give thanks because we need to remind ourselves that much of life is a gift that we neither earn nor deserve. 

Tonight was the Bailey family Thanksgiving, with our three kids, their spouses, and all our grandkids. This year we added two of Alex’s college friends and our friend Bob. The evening consists of three clearly defined parts: Cordon Bleu dinner, the Thankful Tablecloth, and our own recreation of the leg lamp scene from “A Christmas Story.” Words cannot do justice to the fullness of the evening as we laugh, sing, eat, and give thanks for the blessings we have experienced through the year. 

The tablecloth especially is our record of gratitude spanning more than fifteen years. It is crowded with notes, drawings, little kid handprints, a legacy of love in ink and fabric. We trace our lives together on that cloth. Like any family, we have our moments, issues that need working out, bumps in the road we must navigate, but our bond not only in blood, but in the blood of Christ holds us together as we live, forgive, and love one another through circumstances that tear many families apart. That tablecloth is testimony to the grace that has guided us for these many years.

The Leg Lamp ceremony is testimony to the goofiness that has accompanied our journey. Grace and goofiness—that pretty well describes our family. It is that for which I give thanks tonight.