Until the Lord’s Thanksgiving Table is Full!
What’s on the menu?
What’s on your Thanksgiving menu this year? A lineup of classic dishes? Or some experiments: pumpkin-sage mashed sweet potatoes or turducken? How about Ken Tada’s bologna stuffing?! The possibilities are endless.
Of course Thanksgiving isn’t really about the food.
Burnt turkey (or whatever meat or meatless entrée you make) and bland side dishes won’t steal your joy if you have good company. So who will you celebrate with this year? Family and friends; an acquaintance who doesn’t have family nearby?
Whether you’re a host or a guest, the people around the table will shape your Thanksgiving experience.
Who’s on Jesus’s Guest List?
Luke 14:12–14 tells us what kind of guest list Jesus would put together:
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Jesus makes his priority clear: inclusion. Instead of choosing people who can return a favor, or people you feel comfortable with, Jesus wants his followers to fellowship and feast with people who “cannot repay you.”
How can you respond to Jesus’s call to inclusion this Thanksgiving?
Around the world people living with disability face isolation, struggle with unmet needs and lack of resources, and have yet to experience the saving love of Christ. And you can do something about it this Thanksgiving.
This is why Jesus tells his followers to extend friendship to people in need—people with disabilities in particular.
Maybe your family lives with disability, and you hope others will respond to Jesus’s inclusion mandate found in Luke 14. Even if you don’t know anyone with a disability, you can still respond to Luke 14 with a step of obedience.
At Joni and Friends we envision a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. And you can be part of the movement that is bringing this vision to reality.
How can you help?
Jesus is the ultimate Thanksgiving host. He has prepared a table for you and me—and for people with disabilities around the world who have yet to receive their invitation.
Join Joni and Friends in spreading the word!
Around the world one billion people live with disabilities. When you partner with Joni and Friends by supporting our Luke 14 Project, you help us bring people who need hands-on help and Gospel hope into God’s house… until the Lord’s banquet table is full!
Take a Page Out of the Family Recipe Book
Joni’s sister, Jay, perfected this old apple pie recipe on the farm in Maryland as the winter winds had them cozied up inside. We invite you to whip it up and invite others into the warmth of a sweet autumn treat!
