Free oven! Free oven! The ad on social media offered our free wall oven to the first family who responded.
Leticia was first in the virtual line. As we loaded the oven into Leticia’s car, we chatted about life and family. Leticia was from the south of Texas, living in Wisconsin because of a temporary job her husband found. They would soon be going home, oven in tow. As we talked about Leticia’s family and life, I thought about how a simple thing like giving away an oven became the one way in all of the universe for Jill and I to meet this lovely Texan, a woman I would be thankful to call my friend and neighbor.
As she was preparing to leave, Leticia looking at the new oven in the back of her car, said, ‘beautiful.’ To us it had been an oven we didn’t need. To Leticia it was a treasure found. I imagined Thanksgiving morning, Leticia waking up early, turning on the oven and counting the hours until her turkey, prepared in her beautiful oven, would be ready to parade in front of her thankful family.
On Thanksgiving morning I gave thanks to God for the blessing of Leticia, for making this big country seem just a little bit smaller.
It doesn’t take a lot to tear down the fences that divide us, to remove bricks from the walls that separate people who might look or sound different from you, whose politics or religion might be different than yours. Meeting a stranger in your driveway and talking kids has always been a way to make friends, right? Maybe the long journey to unity in this country begins in your driveway.
If you want to be an agent for change in this crazy, mixed-up world, you could do worse than finding something you don’t need which someone else will find beautiful, and then take the time to meet, to talk, to become friends. Jesus said, “Whatever you did for my brothers and sisters, you did to me.”
Thanksgiving blessings are found when we learn anew how to give and receive with grace toward each other.
I don’t know if Jesus had
free ovens in mind, but it seems like a good place to start.
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