Thankful: April W. Gardner’s Encouraging Those Who Are Apart This Thanksgiving
For Those Who Are Apart
April W. Gardner
The holiday season is a time for family. It’s a time to relive traditions, to gather around the table with all those familiar faces and listen to grandpa tell stories you could quote in your sleep. At least, that’s the American “norm.”
I suppose that means I’m not normal. Born a military brat, reared as a missionary kid on a foreign field, and having married into the US Air Force, I can’t recall any two Thanksgivings that have ever been the same. Holidays with extended family is a rarity, and the four of us being together in one place isn’t always assured.
Last year, Hubby was deployed, and his eight months in Iraq fell over the holidays. The week before Thanksgiving, the kiddos and I were able to be with family. What a blessing! But the day of, were alone. Swallowing tears, we took Flat Daddy to Cracker Barrel and tried to forget where the real Daddy was. Little did we know, he was diving for cover. God is good, and all that came of the experience was a skinned knee. Others weren’t so lucky.
Right now, thousands of our troops are far from family and home. This Thanksgiving, they’ll stand in line for an hour to get their serving of holiday fare, made and served by foreign cooks. They’ll gather in the rec room and hope the football game isn’t interrupted by another IED launched by insurgents intent on ruining the holiday. Then, our servicemen and women will return to their bunks and pray the internet isn’t swamped, so they can see their baby’s face, hear her laugh, and feel a part of her life.
This Thanksgiving, Hubby’s home, and that’s one of the things I’m grateful for. Being together.
If you have family to gather with, you’re blessed. Hold onto them. Cherish your freedom. Then send a prayer heavenward for those who are securing that freedom; for those who are apart, so you can be together.
–April W Gardner is the author of Wounded Spirits and a contributor to the devotional, Fighting Fear: Winning the War at Home.
Thank you April.
Here in New Zealand we don’t have Thanksgiving Day, so that’s one less day we have to get family together. I miss mine. Dad and Mum and Sister live in Australia now, and I don’t remember the last time I spend Christmas with them. Perhaps five years. I have a niece I haven’t met yet. Looks like I won’t be able to get over there this Christmas either.
Thank the Lord for SKYPE.
That has to be hard. I’m 300 miles from my family and sometimes it feels like 3000. Skype is a godsend for sure. This is definitely a time of year to remember all families not together—whether by distance just because, or through military.
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