Make sharing inspirational Thanksgiving stories a part of your yearly tradition!
I love Thanksgiving. Every year, my family used to go to a resort called The Concord in the Catskills of upstate New York, but it closed many years ago. Now we all gather at my parents’ house in New Jersey, where my mom prepares a feast so incredible that no fancy resort could ever match it (if you’ve read my story about my mom’s brisket, you know I’m a big fan of her cooking).
Like most other families, we go around the table saying what we’re thankful for. But rarely are our stories of gratitude quite as dramatic as these three inspirational Thanksgiving stories:
A Thanksgiving Turkey on Every Table
We’d given our turkey to a family that was even more needy. But who would help us?
By Mary Jarvis, Pawhuska, Oklahoma
I lifted the heavy lid of our old freezer in the garage and peered inside, looking for some vegetables to make for dinner. For the past year, we’d scraped by on my small teacher’s salary while my husband, Mike, was away at graduate school. With three hungry teenagers to feed, it was a challenge to stretch our grocery dollars. Now, one glance at the half-empty freezer made me question what I’d done on impulse a week earlier.
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Kathy, my 14-year-old, blurted out that one of her friends wasn’t celebrating the holiday because her mother couldn’t afford it. “We could give them our turkey, Mom,” she said. “We don’t need it since we’re going to Uncle Pat’s.” How could I explain to her that I was saving our turkey for Christmas? We didn’t have enough money for Mike to come home for Thanksgiving. The kids and I were going to my brother-in-law’s so I wouldn’t have to invest in a big dinner. How could I afford another turkey before Christmas?
We taught our kids to help others. But to help someone else when we could barely help ourselves? Still, I knew I couldn’t say no. Lord, I hope you have a plan because I sure don’t.
We gathered up a bag of potatoes and cranberry sauce I had in the pantry. I sent my son, Matt, out to the freezer in the garage to get some vegetables—and the turkey. When we brought Kathy’s friend the food, her mother cried tears of joy. At the time, their happiness made me feel better about giving away our turkey. But now, looking into our freezer, I wondered, Who’s going to help us?
I rummaged through the frozen containers—broccoli, carrots, some blackberries from our garden. I pushed aside some frosted bags of green beans and corn. Wait…something was there. Suddenly I stopped and stared. Nestled among the vegetables was a newly bought turkey.
I never found out who the mysterious donor was. Does it matter? Whoever it was knew exactly what we needed, when we needed it.
The Thanksgiving Miracle That Saved His Life
On A Thanksgiving Day in World War II, a miracle saved American soldiers’ lives.
By Mac St. Johns, Thousand Oaks, California
In the winter of 1944 during World War II, I was in France, a platoon sergeant in the Yankee Division under General Patton. About mid-December I received a letter from my mother back in the States.
“Can you remember,” she asked, “where you were on Thanksgiving Day?”
Could I remember? How could I forget the odd thing that happened that day… Read about the Thanksgiving miracle that saved Mac’s life.
Almost Home For The Holidays
We were nearly home when the car broke down…
By Richard King, Blossburg, Pennsylvania
I was a college student in Illinois that Thanksgiving, and I couldn’t wait to get home to Massachusetts for the holidays. A friend’s mother offered me a lift as far as upstate New York, where my parents were going to pick me up. Mrs. Case and I drove all through the chilly night. Just after sunrise on Thanksgiving morning, the engine quit and we rolled to a stop on a deserted highway somewhere in western New York.
Mrs. Case said calmly, “God doesn’t get you just halfway. Let’s pray, Richard…” Read the miraculous way Richard and Mrs. Case made it home.
READ MORE: Even more heartwarming and inspirational Thanksgiving stories
