The Long Goodbye | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Long Goodbye | Previous Challenge Entry
By Loni Bowden-Horn
11/25/21
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Sadly, this was the most difficult goodbye Shana would ever have to make. Tears blurred her vision. She slumped to her bed. “I need sleep,” she murmured and pulled the pillow over her head.

It didn't make sense. Why had God taken her aunt and uncle and two cousins' home? She tried to block out the thoughts that overpowered her. Shana felt like she was caught in a vortex and slowly sinking into a murky pool of quicksand.

Month after month passed, she watched as another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic rolled through her town. It took one friend or church member after the other in the undertow and won't let go. Shane felt a wave of emotions well up inside her. She felt helpless to do anything. She was barred from going to her loved ones funerals because of social distancing restrictions and no relief was in sight.

An eerie silence filled the room. Shana was dreading that Thanksgiving Day was fast approaching. Once a joyous time filled with laughter, good food, and even better memories, now left an empty void in her heart. It was just an added reminder that her loved ones would not be present

Everything felt different, flipped upside down. A piece of her felt missing and everyone expected her to go on living like everything was back to normal.

She reminisced about the times that she had at her aunt and uncle's home on Thanksgiving Day. The kitchen filled with the aroma of her aunt's famous pecan and sweet potato pies. The pineapple glaze drippings from the turkey wafted in the air.

Her family members would gather around the table and would each say something they were thankful about that year and praise God for all of the blessings he had bestowed upon their families.

Her quiet revelry was interrupted by the slamming of the front door.

Her son rushed in and handed her a flyer, "M-o-m they're cancelling the annual food drive at our school."

Shana felt a stirring in her heart to help her community. She was unable to work because of health factors but there must be something that she could do. Folks like herself were struggling to put food on the table and provide other necessities for their families.

At that moment, an idea was born. She counted out the meager savings she had left. If Jesus could feed a crowd of people with five loaves and two fish, then surely, God would provide for the needs of her community.

Shana realized what a broken person she had become and most of people who would come to her table would be broken as well. But she knew that those broken pieces could come together and make a sort of community to survive this pandemic.

A dull ache worked Its way in her arms as she unpacked the boxes of canned goods, fresh vegetables, and other supplies that she had picked up at the market. She placed them out on a table in her front yard with a sign that read "free to anyone in need".

As the afternoon sun descended below the horizon, Shana looked out her window and noticed the table was empty. She smiled as she recalled that God had a plan for resurrecting her hopes and dreams. She felt blessed that God was still providing miracles and that she was able to provide some relief to families in need.

She realized when you take your place at the table of God, His menu is filled with helpings of grace, thankfulness, forgiveness, and abundance, your place is waiting, free for the taking, if you just accept the serving of love offered by Jesus. (Psalm 34:8).

***********Based loosely on a true story of Shana who started KeepPushing.org and her grab-go-table in Missouri. She outgrew her table and has recently acquired a building. Shana has a servants heart.

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