Our Yard Display For Thanksgiving

Saturday morning Ginny and I lingered over breakfast at Dave’s Diner till nearly noon. Two reasons: first, the heat is off at our house in this record-setting cold snap while Dave’s is warm; second, we kept meeting and talking with friendly acquaintances in the crowded restaurant.

We’ve been eating at Dave’s regularly for about 15 years. So have many of the other customers. And essentially the same staff has served there during that time span. Therefore it’s rare for us to go in there without bumping into someone we know.

This morning we talked with Mike who drove the bus Ginny used to catch to work, and Chuck who runs the newsstand. Plus several other people whose faces I know without knowing their names.

Because the place was packed, instead of a booth, Ginny and I ended up sitting at a table in the middle of the floor; so we were exposed to many conversations all around us. At one table several folks discussed a vampire movie. At another table some rough laborers discussed stress in sub-surface construction (whatever that is). Another group discussed a girl’s drug problem and whether or not she was menstruating and whether or not her boyfriend has stopped beating her.

And, of course everybody talked about the Jaguars/Vikings football game and JU’s chances in the playoffs.

After breakfast we visited a used furniture store where we discovered that one single chair now costs more money than we’ve spent on every bit of furniture we have in our whole house!

Sticker Shock, indeed!

By then, the temperature warmed up enough for us to return home and stuff a cloth turkey for our outside Thanksgiving display. Here’s a photo of Ginny making a few final adjustments:

Here’s a close-up of our display:

We are not much for witnessing or evangelism. We’re pretty low key about such things. But we do want our lives and testimony to cause the people whose paths cross ours to give Jesus a serious thought. We’d like folks to know that God is good.

Hence, our little yard display.

Just a reminder as to what Thanksgiving is all about—we are actually thanking Someone for something. We’re not just sending warm fuzzy thoughts out into the ether.

There’s no reason to thank the ether for anything.

That makes no sense.

And usually we are thankful (or resentful) about material things.

Stuff.

Passing stuff.

Perishing stuff.

But one Psalm says, Give thanks unto the Lord for He is good”.

I think it most appropriate to thank the Lord because God is good in Himself.

And towards us.

The first newspaper article I ever wrote was published back in the early 1970s. It was about Thanksgiving.

Odd how that came about:

A lady living a thousand miles away from me, up in Ohio, read a magazine article I’d written. She noticed that the author lived in Jacksonville where her son was a newspaper reporter, so she called him to suggest that he get in touch with me.

We did not have a phone at the time, so he couldn’t call.

He decided to forget it, but his mother’s suggestion dwelt in his mind…

One day while I was in the bath tub getting cleaned up for a job interview because I’d decided to give up writing and get a real job, a paying job, I was feeling enormously down and discouraged.

Ginny knocked on the bathroom door saying, “John, there’s a man at the front door. He says he’s a newspaper reporter.”

I’d never seen a real live reporter before ever in my whole life.

I threw on a robe and went out. We got to talking and he offered to introduce me to the newspaper’s city editor. He wanted me to bring in a sample of my writing… The Little End Of The Horn was the article I gave the editor.

He published it.

And I’ve kept on free lance writing during the 35 years since.

Give thanks unto the Lord for He is good.