Thanksgiving Meditation: Five Kernels of Corn Text: "Enter the Temple gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise him." (Ps 100:4) His name was Kenny. He was my best friend in elementary school. We had much in common. He had three sisters, so did I, so we were able to comfort one another. He liked to collect coins, so did I. He went to church, so did I (though not tothe same one). He liked Debbie Fulcher, the coolest girl in 5th grade, and so did I. He really liked school and so...well, you can't be alike in every way! His family had moved to our town from a place called Massachusetts - which sounded like a foreign country to me. Indeed, Kenny and his family had a peculiar accent and I often teased him about it. He would rightly point out that I had quite an accent as well. Kenny and his family also had strange customs. And one of them I discovered when they invited me to a meal at their house around Thanksgiving... We all went into the dining room. The table was set - plates and glasses but no food. Not even a piece of bread. We all sat down and then I noticed beside each empty plate a little pile of corn, five kernels to be exact. And my first thought was, "I didn't know Kenny and his family were so poor!" My second thought was, "I'm gonna starve!" Then I saw Kenny's father nod to his youngest daughter and she asked, "Father, why are there five pieces of corn beside our plates?" I wanted to know that too. And I don't remember everything he said, but the gist of it was that the Pilgrim fathers and mothers faced many hardships when they came to America seeking freedom to worship God as they felt they should. One of those was hunger. One of the first winters it was so bad that they had only five pieces of corn per person each day to eat. The next spring, however, because of God's blessings through help from their Indian friends, they had a bountiful harvest and raised their voices in thanksgiving, inviting their new Indian friends to a great banquet - the first Thanksgiving. So the five pieces of corn are there to remind us of their suffering, of our bounty, and our need to give thanks. Then he picked up a piece of corn and looked around at his family and told them and God, I suppose, just how thankful he was for them. He laid the piece of corn on the other side of the plate. Then Kenny's mother took a kernel of corn and named something she was thankful for...and they went around the table until they got to Kenny...and Kenny, I still see him holding that tiny piece of corn, looked at me and said that he was thankful for me, and what a good friend I had been to him, for he didn't think he would make any friends when he moved here. I felt my eyes grow moist...but it was my turn...I picked up a piece of corn and then shared thanks for Kenny and his whole strange family, for I was beginning to like them all, even his sisters... We went around the table until everyone had given thanks for five blessings, one for each piece of corn... After that, we all went out to the kitchen and there laying on the counter were all kinds of food. What a relief! We all took the food back out to the table and then stood behind our chairs and held hands while Kenny's father gave thanks. Then, at long last, we got to eat! Kenny and his family moved again a few years later, something to do with his Dad's job. I did not see him for years and we had not stayed in touch as we said we would. Years later, it was early 1982, I believe, soon after Michael had been born (Michael was born prematurely and we feared for his life those first few months). I remember us taking Michael to the doctor and a young looking man came in with the doctor, a man with a familiar face to me. He was a medical student. He was Kenny! He helped take care of my son! And he still had a weird accent! Isn't God good to us? Hold up a piece of corn... This day I give thanks for my family... for my wife, Debbie, who has brought more joy and love and goodness into my life than I can ever deserve... for my son, Michael, who I have loved even before I saw him, but loved even more the first time I saw his small frame lying in that tiny crib...and as he was so grown to this fine young man today, so, too, has my love grown for him... for my daughter, Meredith, who since the very second of her birth has been such an absolute delight, so full of life, so beautiful and loving... No man ever had such a family as I have been given. Thank you, God for my family... Hold up the second piece of corn... I give thanks today for my extended family and friends like Kenny, especially for the church, all of you and all those dear souls who have loved, taught, nurtured me in the Lord. Without you, I would not be here today, doing what I am doing, and knowing and loving God... Thank you, God for my church family and friends... Hold up the third piece of corn... I give thanks this day for our country, for those courageous and faith-filled people who came here seeking a better life, and who, by the grace of God, found it, and found a land truly flowing with milk and honey... Thank you, God, for America... Hold up the fourth piece of corn... Today I give thanks for all those little blessings that I take so for granted... the fresh air I breathe even now... for the food that so bountifully covers our tables... for work that gives us ways to use our gifts... for shelter... for clothes... for music... for books... for winters, springs, summers, and fall, for all the things, the simple things that bring such joy and blessings to our lives, thank you, Lord... Hold up the fifth piece of corn... And I give thanks this day for Christ. He is the most important person in my life. No one has ever done more for me, give me more, loved me more, helped bring the best out of me, challenged me, convicted me, nurtured me... Lord, I give you thanks this and every day for Christ... We have for each of you a pouch with five kernels of corn in it. (Refer to the baskets full of corn on the table.) Each of you will get one of these when you leave today and are encouraged to use them at your Thanksgiving meal to share the things for which you are most thankful this year. But why wait until then? We, too, are sitting around a table today, the Lord's table, truly a Thanksgiving table. Where better to give thanks than here right now? I ask you, if you would like, to share at least one thing for which you want to give God thanks this year. And after each person shares, let us say together: WE GIVE YOU THANKS, O LORD... When everyone has shared who wishes to do so, I will lead in a prayer and then a hymn. Note to readers: Here's what we put on the card attached to the corn: Five Kernels of Corn Long years ago, the historian tells us, the Pilgrims faced such a brutal winter that they had only 5 kernels of corn per person per day. Since then, many families place five kernels of corn beside each plate at the Thanksgiving meal to remember the suffering and spirit of thanksgiving of our Pilgrim ancestors. Many families also take turns sharing around the table five things for which they are thankful. Try this in your home this Thanksgiving.