A Tunafish Thanksgiving

I’m a little worried about Thanksgiving. There was a special on tunafish at the grocery store (10 for whatever$), and my wife, who loves tunafish, bought all ten. She knows that you get the same deal even if you buy two. It made me wonder, “Why do we need so much?"

I suppose it was a good price, though, since I really don’t like tunafish, I think the grocery store should have to pay the customer to walk out with it. I’m rightly skeptical about this product. We all know there is a fish called “tuna,” and I have no trouble eating it in that form - a nice slab of grilled tuna. But in the can, they don’t call it tuna. They call it tunafish. It’s as though they are trying to convince you of something that is not true. When you have turkey for Thanksgiving, you never see the word, Turkeybird. It’s either turkey or it’s not. And, the can strongly resembles cat food.

And so, I fear my wife is secretly planning a tunafish Thanksgiving. Yeah, tunafish with all the fixin’s. I have to ask the question, if she does so, is it even Thanksgiving? And then I have to ask myself, “Will I even be thankful?”

It’s been a tough year. We’ve “cancelled” Easter, Mother’s Day, 4th of July parades, family vacations, and now, even Thanksgiving? And who knows about Christmas. None of us want to think about “a cold, dark winter.” If we let this be the whole story, we make a serious mistake. Covid didn’t cancel the resurrection of Jesus. Covid can’t dampen our appreciation for our mothers. Our love of country persists whether we gather in crowds or not, and we can be thankful whether the church basement is packed with people, or if we gather with so few people we don’t even have to bring up extra chairs from the basement. Thankfulness is not on the calendar. It is in our hearts.

And so, if we in fact have a tunafish Thanksgiving, I’m going to be thankful anyway. I’m going to be thankful for the care and provision of our heavenly Father, who has more than met our deepest and spiritual needs. I’m thankful for the loving sacrifice of Christ, and the presence of the Spirit. I’m thankful for the fellowship of believers, and for this place and time in which we live, locally and nationally. And maybe I’ll even be thankful for the cat I’m thinking about buying, that can sit on my lap during the meal and eat the main dish that I slide its direction.