As I’m sure it was for most of us, Thanksgiving celebrations looked different. Fewer people at the table. More care and attention to where we were and had been. But beyond the three types of cranberry sauce that my husband says are absolutely necessary for Thanksgiving, my favorite tradition made another appearance at our table.
It started four years ago when we had, as a family, a hard year. My husband was laid off from his job, I was considering a cross-country move for a new job, and every day felt hard. In the midst of that upheaval, I remembered a story from the Old Testament. In order for God’s people to escape from Egypt and move into a new land, they had to cross the Jordan River. To help them remember their deliverance and his provision of a way out of an impossible situation, God told them to gather stones from the riverbed they had just crossed to create a memorial. “In the future, when your children ask about these stones,” he said, “tell them what I did and how I brought you through on dry ground” (see Joshua 4 for the full story).
So, I sent my kids into the alley to find some stones, handed everyone a Sharpie and asked them to write what they were thankful for from the past year. Our stones became our memorial of God’s faithfulness. Every year since, new stones have made an appearance on our table. Some are scavenged throughout the year, some come from the small island where my mother grew up, some still come from the alley behind our house. But each year, we’re able to record how we have seen God show up. We’re able to remember that we are not forgotten. We remember that we have been brought through.
What made it onto the rocks this year?
Family.
Friends.
New job.
We did more than survive 2020. We found moments to thrive.
And those, more than anything else, are the things I want to remember from 2020.
Alys Grant, Author 