The Im-Perfect Holiday

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10

It is a little strange and slightly awkward to me, but many people are awaiting our Thanksgiving documentary. I don’t even remember exactly how it began. Our youngest, the fourth child, highly creative, had learned to shoot and edit video. Somehow he and his sister-friends decided to create a highly irreverent docudrama of our day. They assigned roles and scripts, and for some reason, we all played along. It is a less than flattering story about our family, and when I watch it, I want to scream, “This is all made up!”

It is, in fact, part invention, part reality. And I am thankful for what it reveals. We are not anywhere close to the perfect family. My heart swells with gratitude to have three of our four children home, but I miss our daughter who is continents away in India. I love my husband’s grilled turkey, but I am weary of him having call on major holidays, and I wonder what will happen if some kid breaks his arm skateboarding at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning? I long for shalom, but the Thanksgiving documentary is our feast of hope – we are broken, but by the grace of God, we are restored. If the script were the only reality, I doubt we’d be recording it.  So what I am most grateful for today and this week is the undeserved grace of God played out in our lives.

Wanta watch? Here’s the link to last year’s…you can also find the first one at this channel.