This Little Indian

Here's our Madison, dressed up as a Pink Indian with a lovely pink headdress. She's obviously from one of the more fashionable tribes. Daddy is actually part Cherokee, but I've actually never seen any tribe wear so much pink. Still, nobody was complaining when she came to work today, giving her typical Indian war cry: "Daddy!"

We're getting ready for the Voyage here at children's church -that's a whole month of Pilgrims, Indians, and of course turkeys. It's going to be a really fun series, as Daddy loves this time of year. It'll be fun dressing up as a Pilgrim and chasing turkeys! That's a word Madison is quite familiar with: "turkey!" When she sees one, she makes sure everyone knows what it is. She also knows the word "Indian," although it is harder for her to say. Right now, she says "In-ee-an."

Here it is above, the logo for our new series. I've written the whole thing based on the Pilgrims, following their adventure across the ocean to the terrible winter to the blessing of running into Squanto and other helpful Indians. Obviously, we have a service or two about the big feast too! We can find parallels with Joseph, with Abraham - and we of course hit all sorts of scriptures about being thankful.

The devotional I wrote for this series is one of my favorite things I've written, where I imagine Thanksgiving Town. A little context: In the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas," the main character encounters a circle of trees in the forest, each with a different holiday logo on it. Each door is a entrance that takes you to a different town - and each of those places is responsible for helping create the different holidays. Imagine for a moment, the door to Thanksgiving town...

You’ve probably wondered where holidays come from.

If you haven’t, I’d say that it’s time you begun!

In a circle of trees just outside of town

is a tree with a turkey on it, orange, red and brown.

This is an entrance, and through it you’ll bound

smack into a place called Thanksgiving Town.

There you’ll see everyone working right now

to make this Thanksgiving the best they know how.

There’s Pilgrims and Indians who make candy corn

and a large cornucopia that’s shaped like a horn.

The Indians are grateful for the harvest God’s given.

The Pilgrims are thankful – they think this is heaven!

Indeed, they’re just happy and pleased they can be

where no one’s ungrateful for the things that they see.

Yes everyone there counts their blessings each hour.

For a bit of relaxing, they board the Mayflower

and set sail out to sea, to see what’s around

but they always return back to Thanksgiving Town.

For this year they’re planning a great celebration

(Thanksgiving to them ain’t just any occasion).

If you’re there you can watch them prepare a parade

with ginormous balloons that the citizens made.

But Thanksgiving gatherings are never complete

without the great feast that they can’t wait to eat.

Just a few days to go – table’s still being set

full of stuffing, potatoes and cranberries I bet!

With turkey and gravy and the tastiest dressings,

it’s a bountiful harvest displaying God’s blessings.

Of course they all know that it’s not about food.

If you accuse them of that, you might seem quite rude!

No, wherever you’re from, and at whatever latitude,

Thanksgiving Town’s message to us is of gratitude.

The people who live there, they have it all year.

We ought to do likewise and be thankful here.