Your Family

I think yesterday was the best thanksgiving I've had. Jill invited Ace and his girlfriend, Gayle, to come over for dinner last night. If you don't know who Ace is, read "it's my favorite sandwich in the whole world". I've got a ton of stories from last night, but I'll just share two.

I picked Ace and Gayle (that's Gayle with a "y", it's very important) up at 4:00. First thing I see is Ace wearing a shirt that says "fuck it all". Now I'm not terribly opposed to a shirt like this, sometimes that's exactly how I feel. Sometimes I wish I could wear a shirt like this. But I'd never have the guts to wear it out. Most likely whenever I get in a bad mood, I would put the shirt on, turn the lights out, sit in my closet and sulk. At least I could wear how I feel. Alright back to the story. At this particular moment, I didn't think the shirt would be deemed appropriate for Thanksgiving dinner. I politely told him that I didn't want to offend anyone in my family and asked him to turn it inside out. He totally understood but I think he was kind of bummed. I think he really likes that shirt, it's one of his newer ones. On the drive over Ace asked who was going to be there. I told him my family, Jill's family, and a couple from church. I could see from the look on his face that this is not what he was expecting. He says to me, "what about jeremiah", I reply, "no, he's going to be with his family", "and kevin" " no he's in california with family" "and israel" "no he's with family as well." I could tell that he thought this dinner was a church function. I said to him, "hey Ace, you know what?" he looked over at me, "it's Thanksgiving and you're spending it with your family as well." he paused for a moment "Thanks Mark"

During dinner time I was bouncing all around. I just wanted to serve Ace and Gayle. "Can I get you something, more turkey, more stuffing." I got no response a couple of times, so I guess that's a good thing. Ace had a glass of milk and Gayle a glass of apple juice. After Gayle had finished her's up, Jill asked, "can I get you some more juice". She responded, "no, I finished mine." Jill told her she could have more if she wanted. Gayle politely declined, "no, I finished mine." It occurred to me that she was not used to getting refills. Because when it's gone, it's gone. There's no more to have. These are the moments that break my heart.

I forgot, I got one more. I bought Ace a bike a couple of weeks ago. Nothing special, just a Walmart special. I know I know, Walmart is evil. But evil has bikes for only 59 dollars (Sam, I know, I'm the biggest hypocrite). I don't live under the law, but by grace. :) Ace had to exchange it for a new one because the last one broke (which Walmart is very good about, I kid I kid). I said to him, "are you going to take better care of this one?" Ace said, "I need to, it's special to me." "Is it because I gave it to you." "No, it's because God gave it to me." Ace, thanks for the reminder.

For some reason I feel like I'm a better Christian and a better person when I'm around him. He keeps me humble, I'm less consumeristic, he tells me I'm blessed, he makes me less selfish. Everybody needs an Ace in their life. This thanksgiving, I'm thankful for Ace.