You have a great family. You just gathered for thanksgiving to hugs when you walk through the door, laughter across the table filled with delicious food. You crashed on the couch after the meal with a full belly, comfortable to just be yourself in this place, with these people who love you and cheer your success. You offered up thanksgiving to God for the blessing of family. They aren’t perfect. They have their sins and you have your disagreements too. But they are a blessing and they add such joy and strength to your life. You thanked God for a lot of gifts yesterday, but number one was family. Whether it was a large extended family or just the small immediate family that sits around your table each day. You gave thanks for family first of all.

NOW….Share it.

When Jesus gave thanks for bread, he broke it and passed it around, and a crazy thing happened…it multiplied.

When we are given something good, we can choose to keep it for ourselves or we can share it. Like the talents the master gave (Matthew 25:14-30), the ones who didn’t cling to tightly to them and risked them actually multiplied them, and were given even more by the master. But the man who was scared to lose his one, buried it in the ground, and not only did it never multiply, he ended up losing it all together.

But when we have a great family, sometimes there is a tendency to keep it to ourselves. Its so wonderful, we treasure it so much, we don’t want to risk doing anything to lose it. So we keep it closed off, we limit who we let in, we want to keep it just for us just the way it is now. And in doing so, we do the same thing as the man who was afraid to lose his one talent, we bury it in the ground.

You’ve seen families who are so close, no one is really good enough to marry their children/siblings/etc, and when they do, they never truly become part of the family. There is a distinct divide, the “real” family versus the in-laws. These families slowly fade and grow distant. The mother or father or siblings who wanted to hold on so tightly to the perfect family they had, lose it all together because they won’t let anyone else be apart of it.

There are also the families that are so self-focused there isn’t any time for anyone else. Friendships, helping at church, community events all become non-existent and family becomes the only thing they do. We all need to find a good balance where we are not neglecting our family to be involved in everything, but a family without friendships, a family that doesn’t go out to the community suffers, closes in on itself and suffocates without the involvement of others, without the airflow of friendship.

Ultimately, I think most of all we don’t invite others in because we are afraid. We want to protect our family from poor influence and we want to preserve the goodness and comfortableness we find in our own families. We have a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” attitude. Except families that are buried in the dirt, will eventually start to decay.

But families that choose to share themselves, who choose to give thanks for what they have and then turn and offer it to others, will find their blessings multiplied. Most obviously by more family members around the table. But also by the growth of virtue and grace in their hearts. Because sacrificial love lived out always brings spiritual growth and blessing.

So, if you were looking around the dinner table this year, soaking in the blessing of all those people gathered around the table, I’m challenging you now to share it.

Invite the neighbors whose family doesn’t make it home for the holidays to join you. Invite the lonely person from your church. Do something good for the community as a family, not just once, but routinely. And if I could be so bold, consider inviting someone not just to visit your family, but to become a part of it. Right now, there are around 400,000 children living in foster care in the United States. More than 100,000 of them are waiting to be adopted. They have no family at all.

We hear statistics like that and its overwhelming, its hard to feel like we can make a difference or do anything about that. But you could make a difference for one. You could invite just one child into your family. And you’re right, it would change your family. It would absolutely be hard and probably bring in some negative influence to your family, and your family as you know it right now would never be the same. But it would also breathe in life into your family. It would bring gifts to your family you were lacking and didn’t realize. And it would remind you all every day what family is really supposed to be: to be there for others, to love others, to show the sacrificial love of Christ, who suffers for us even before we are family, before we choose to love Him back. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8

It will be risky, inviting someone else in to the great family you have now. It will change things, it will be less comfortable and more challenging. But it will give your family life. The breath of life you need in this world and more importantly the next.

But what if you’re not feeling like your family is special enough to be shared?

I snapped this photo at a family thanksgiving a few years ago. My dad has a big family, and those ladies can bake! Growing up this was my normal because it was the only Thanksgiving celebration I had ever been too. I had no idea how impressive this selection of pies and desserts for thanksgiving dinner was until I got older and realized a lot of people just had one or two desserts at their dinners. Apparently, 15 or more delicious pies and going back for a second piece later in the afternoon isn’t everyone’s normal. Who knew?

My point is, I think sometimes we take for granted the things about family that make a family great because we’ve always had them. You don’t have to be perfect parents, or take your kids to Hawaii every year, or even coach soccer to be an adoptive parent. But things that are normal to you, like reading books and prayers before bed, wrestling on the living room floor, hugs and kisses before you leave the house, those are all things that are not normal life for a lot of kids. There are kids out there who have never been to a family gathering, who don’t know what its like to get hugs when they walk through the door or play card games with cousins or sneak grandmas secret stash of candy while mom and dad aren’t looking. Or just the basic security of having a mom and dad, someone that cares if you live or die, succeed or fail that allows you to have confidence to go out into the world because you are loved at home. There are people who really don’t know the joy of family that has been your anchor your whole life long. That’s the amazing dessert table of your family that you don’t even realize is special because you’ve always had it.

So, now maybe you do…Then share it. Could you scoot a little closer and make a little more space around your table next year so someone else could have that too? Could you share that same love for your in-laws or your neighbors that you have for your own children because maybe they need a place to belong too?

I know it’s a big question, its a great sacrifice. But I also know what is given over to God with thanksgiving will be multiplied. And our faithful God never disappoints.