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I am not generally led to write poetry, but for some reasons these words seem to well up in me this year.  Please forgive my feeble attempts, but hopefully you will find some meaning in the words.  I want to wish you all a very happy holiday season, with copious amounts of God’s overflowing love and joy.

Ode to Thanksgiving

By Tom Waitschies

As Thanksgiving comes, what do we feel?

Is it simply a day for a banquet meal?

In the face of the hungry, how do we dare?

Are we so oblivious that we simply don’t care?

We see the people with no home, no comfort, no solace.

They walk the streets with distant stares that look beyond us.

Are they the poor ones, the frightened ones, the outcast?

Or are we the poorer, because we haven’t seen or asked?

This day we set aside in tribute to give thanks.

We plan, we cook, we feast, and afterwards we just go blank.

What kind of day could it be, if we remembered God’s people who are without?

The homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked; all these we could address, no doubt.

Let us gather with friends and family this Thanksgiving Day.

Let’s give thanks for home and kin as we bow our heads to pray.

But let us also include our sisters and brothers who live without.

For they are God’s children, and we are those God empowers their plight to rout.