On Dining with Strangers at Thanksgiving

We’re all strangers.

With all of the current heartfelt discussion about welcoming “strangers” into our country, I thought I’d return to some basic facts from history — and the Bible — about this feast we call Thanksgiving! 

When my kiddos were little, the pre-schools and elementary schools always had Thanksgiving feasts. For these sweet occasions, I was often given the opportunity to create a Pilgrim costume out of paper bags (and thanks be to God for the schools who did that for us poor parents :-)!!) or an “Indian” costume (as the first Americans were called then) out of a t-shirt, some brown dye, and some scissors (and again, for all of you schoolteachers who did that for us…my eternal thanks:-)!

As pretty as that tableau was, it only resembled part of the real first Thanksgiving, according to Joanna Brooks, writing about the first pilgrims for Smithsonian Magazine. For many of the immigrants to America, life was characterized by starvation, poverty, fighting, and murder. But somehow in the midst of the mess, some of these strangers came together and made a feast. Ever-so-briefly, there was ever-so-tentative peace on earth.

Will you dine with strangers?

As Christians, God has called us to a feast of thanks-giving. Together, we recall that God redeemed and transformed broken, sinful people. Christ fed us physically, with bread and wine, and spiritually, with his body sacrificed to redeem and renew us.

In a few days, you may be sitting at table with a fractured community (or you may be NOT sitting at table because of fractured community). My Thanksgiving prayer for all of us is that we can remember that we were once far off — from God — and from one another, and that our Savior brought us near:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Eph. 2:13

This Savior, who broke down the dividing wall of hostility, brought us together to feast and thank God as one. For this reason, this Thanksgiving, may we accept invitations to dine with strangers — even those in our own family! As we do, may we dream of a day when the feasting will be centered around the greatest stories ever told of the goodness of the Lord. Here is some Scripture that you may enjoy reading aloud alone or together as an encouragement to celebrate with hope:

Isaiah 25: 6-10, The Message
But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies
will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish
the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
Yes, he’ll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
He’ll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
Yes! God says so!
Also at that time, people will say,
“Look at what’s happened! This is our God!
We waited for him and he showed up and saved us!
This God, the one we waited for!
Let’s celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation.
God’s hand rests on this mountain!”

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash