Monday Morning Manna: Friendsgiving

This Thanksgiving season I’ve learned a new word, at least one that is new to me – Friendsgiving. Urban Dictionary defines it as, “The celebration of Thanksgiving dinner with your friends. This usually occurs on the Wednesday before or the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, since Thanksgiving is usually reserved for family gatherings.” The precise origins of “Friendsgiving” are uncertain. However, our family has been doing this for a long time, beginning with inviting into our home international students and students who lived too far from campus to go home at Thanksgiving. Our kids looked forward to our family growing, at Thanksgiving time. Nor did it originate with my family. I remember going home from college for Thanksgiving weekend, only to find a collection of international students in my house, invited by my mother, to share a Thanksgiving meal with us. It’s even older than that, for while the word is not in the Bible, the concept of enjoying a meal with friends certainly is. Not the least of these is the Passover meal, shared by Jesus with his disciples (Luke 22:14-27), and the meal prepared for the disciples by Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39). We will observe Friendsgiving again this year with neighbors who are spending Thanksgiving alone. How about you? Are you sharing Thanksgiving this year with anyone other than family?

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is the WestCoast Baptist Association’s Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.