Thanksgiving 2023: A two-sided harvest

“All the world is God's own field,
fruit as praise to God we yield;
wheat and tares together sown
are to joy or sorrow grown;”

The images and memories surrounding Thanksgiving abound. Regardless of our histories, when we think about this holiday it usually conjures memories of tables surrounded, and food overflowing. As a child, I always loved Thanksgiving. It was a more relaxed holiday than others, and it was easy to see all the reasons I should be grateful.

But this year I find myself looking beyond the Norman Rockwell images to the shadow made visible because of Thanksgiving’s light. With all the people assembled, there are people missing. With all the food, people are still hungry:

A family gathers without their son. He was sent to rehab to address his life-long problem with addiction.

A woman tries to create a happy Thanksgiving for her children on this first year since the divorce was final.

A daughter, whose father died two years ago, tries not to hear her father’s voice when someone new says grace.

A couple eats at a table in their retirement home knowing their children have lives too busy to visit.

A father doesn’t look over at the empty seat where his son used to sit. Seems he’d rather be elsewhere this Thanksgiving.

A widower offers a grateful smile to the neighbors who included him in their Thanksgiving feast, but it isn’t the same since his wife died.

Every harvest includes grain and chaff. To every happy celebration, there’s an echo of sadness. The hopeless romantic, the tender child, within me wishes it were not so, but, somehow, I know I need to look not only into the light but also the shadows. When I do, my gratitude finds greater depth, my song of praise, a richer tone.