Thanksgiving Overload

Yesterday, I hit my worst.  I had a complete overload of Thanksgiving Day food (as well as all of the surrounding days).  I had gained nearly four pounds of food induced baggage on my already overloaded frame.  I couldn’t motivate myself to do much of anything.  Normally I run on Saturdays, but it was all I could muster to take a walk around the neighborhood.  I think even the dog was sluggish. 

We spend Thanksgiving with relatives and extended relatives in Cedar Lake, Indiana.  All three of our girls were there along with somewhere around twenty five other relatives.  It was just a great time and I am very thankful for the graciousness of my mother and father-in-law who pulled off such a fun gathering.  As I was enjoying the time, I felt the subtle pressure of things undone for work and my class and the subtlety of desiring a more quiet Thanksgiving.  However, on Thanksgiving Day, my wife read an e-mail from a neighborhood friend saying that a boy on the Aurora football team was tragically killed in a single car automobile accident about a mile and a half from our house.  He was on his way back from football practice on a very quiet road, apparently crossed the center line, then jerked back, lost control of the car and hit a tree.  To further compound matters, the Aurora football team was in the state semifinals and a town was thrust from celebration to mourning. 

How quickly circumstances change and things you take for granted are gone.  When I see all of our girls together, I have to remind myself to relish in the moment.  Our lives on this earth are there and gone in a whisper, in a moment of time.  God has given us today.  The Bible says today is the acceptable time of salvation.  God has given us family and friends to enjoy.  In football, there is such a penalty as an excessive celebration penalty.  But we face no such penalty (other than the food hangover) when we celebrate with family this time of year.  And in the process relish in the gifts and opportunities God gives us each day.