By The Rev. Dr. Carl Grosse

I was wrong. Last Friday, when Dana Lamb and I were setting up tables for the Thanksgiving meal after church, I said six tables should be fine. Both of us figured people probably had other plans and maybe half the Sunday worship crowd would stay for the meal. Instead of the 45-50 we anticipated, close to 90 people filled the Fellowship Hall using double the number of tables we originally set up. Fortunately, many of them also brought a dessert or side dish so everyone got to eat. Yep, I was way off.

Beside my miscalculation, here are some other takeaways from the meal. The crowd of 90-ish people spanned more age groups than usual. Several of you commented on the mix of young and old. Everyone smiled, helped, shared, visited. I don’t recall seeing any wallflowers. People pitched in to serve, clean up, set up and take down extra tables and chairs. Many of you asked Denise and me as well as other potential “orphans” if we had a place to go and people to be with for Thanksgiving and offered to include us in your plans. Just writing that makes my eyes get all misty. There were very few leftovers.

In conclusion, I will avoid trying to explain why we had so many wonderful, caring, hungry people show up last Sunday. After guessing so far off the actual turnout, I’ll just keep my mouth shut on any further analysis. All I can say for sure is that it was beautiful.