The Wishbone Tradition

I expect it’s a fairly common ritual, practiced by families across America, to carve their Thanksgiving turkey carefully around the sacred wishbone so it can be momentarily protected from harm, only to be ripped apart later to pay homage to some pagan god who grants wishes to the “winner” – he (or she) who retained the larger of the two parts.

Sarcasm aside (and not for some fanatical faith-based beliefs against wish-making) that’s not the Wishbone Tradition in the Yost home.

For all the years we’ve been a family (including our first Thanksgiving together, the year before Edward and I married) we’ve kept the wishbone from our Thanksgiving turkey as a reminder of another year that we were so blessed to have things to be thankful for.

This year, although I am certainly thankful for all the things I am always thankful for… my Lord, my husband, my children, my church, my health, my job … I’m particularly thankful for God’s faithfulness through, what could be (what should be), a very trying financial time for our family.

Despite my husbands unplanned 22-month gap in employment, we have faithfully tithed and God has faithfully ensured our savings would stretch further than I thought possible. God has used these months to teach us patience, obedience, patience, trust and patience.

After this year’s wishbone dries enough for me to write “2009” on it, I will not break it in half and “wish” for Edward to find a job (although I will pray to God for it). Instead, I will place it with the others to remember 2009 as a year of amazing joy for God’s faithfulness, knowing how precious and exclusive it is that we have been first-hand witnesses to God’s promise proved.

May your Thanksgiving memories – past, present and those yet to be made – and God’s blessings in your life be forever-captured in your memories, hearts and traditions.
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