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I’ll spare you the details about the Thanksgiving table. You probably wouldn’t like butterscotch pie anyway. We’ll save your portion for me. I know you wouldn’t be interested in ham baked so tender it melts in your mouth and the red-eye gravy that goes with it or slow-roasted turkey, oyster dressing and giblet gravy over a mound of creamy mashed potatoes. And I know you’re much too sophisticated to swoon over homemade yeast rolls too hot to handle and dripping with butter.

I don’t want to offend, so I won’t impose on you. I won’t discuss Thanksgiving dinner. I will, instead, discuss what happens after dinner.....besides football and snoring.

I love it when everyone gathers around the big dining room table and the games come out. Whether it’s plastic “men” tapping around a “Sorry” board, Trivial Pursuit, or a never-ending game of Monopoly (which is not for those of us punching a mental timeclock), it’s just a lot of fun!

Years ago my sister, Darlene, introduced us to a new card game…or at least new to us. It was Mille Bornes. (Pronounced meal born in case you’ve never encountered it.) It’s French for “a thousand milestones”. It’s a traveling game. The idea is to see who can go 1000 miles first. It’s simple enough. You must draw a “roll” card to be able to start, then play various numbered mileage cards to collect “miles” traveled until you go 1000 miles.

The hitch here is that others can play their cards on you. You can be traveling along just fine minding your own business when suddenly someone plays a speed limit card on you and you’re limited to 25 mph. Or they can play other hazards on you like “stop”, “out of gas”, “flat tire” or even give you an “accident”. You must draw the remedy card (i.e. repairs, gasoline, spare tire) and then a “roll” in order to proceed. Sometimes it seems like you’re stopped forever before you get the appropriate cards to get back on the road. Meanwhile, your opponents are zipping along, adding mileage. That is, until someone plays a hazard on them as well.

Then, of course, there are the cards everyone wants, “driving ace”, “extra tank”, “puncture proof”, and “right of way”. These cards are called “safeties” and prevent your opponent from playing hazard cards on you. They make for smooth sailin’.

I hadn’t thought of that game in years. Then suddenly last Saturday night I ran upon a tremendous traffic jam on the interstate coming home from the Write About Jesus Workshop in St. Louis. Traffic was at a deadstop, then a crawl, then a deadstop. It was horrible. I felt trapped and helpless. I remember thinking, “If I could just get a ‘roll card’. I’ve got to get out of here.” (Funny how traffic jams work on the claustrophobic.) Finally, it was clear that they had closed all lanes and were bottle-necking everyone off onto an exit into a not-so-great part of town. “Great”, I thought, “I have no idea where I am, my night vision is not good, and this is a scary area.”

Immediately off the exit was a Cracker Barrel. I said to myself, “Oh, I’ll dive in here.” (I’ll use any excuse for Cracker Barrel.) “I can grab something to eat, make a much-needed trip to the necessary room, and try to pull my head together so I can figure my way out of this mess. Maybe in an hour traffic will be on the move again and I can get home.”

So that’s what I did. I had a nice meal, swigged sweet tea (or “swate tay” as my Tennessee friend Deb corrects me), and looked around in the shop for a while. It was a really nice diversion. Then I got back in the car and headed for the interstate. Nothing had changed. It was still bottle-necked. Panic began to set in as the police directed us up yet another exit ramp and over the interstate onto a dark service road. But this time it was a road name I actually recognized.

I wasn’t sure how far I was from home, but I knew if I kept picking my way north and east I would eventually cross the Mississippi River back into Illinois. Ah, my roll card! Believe me, I didn’t let any grass grow under my feet traveling through those scary North St. Louis County neighborhoods! I was just trying to rack up mileage cards as fast as I could before someone could play another hazard on me!

Finally, at 11:00 p.m. I pulled into my driveway. A trip that would normally take less than an hour took four. I can’t tell you how relieved and thankful I was to be home. You know, it would have been great if I could have come straight home with no slow-downs, no detours, no problems. But life played the speed limit card on me. I was thinking just today how fortunate I was. I could have been the one up ahead involved in that terrible collision. Instead, I was merely inconvenienced. A couple of days later in my own driveway my car battery bit the dust. What if I had been 50 miles from home and alone on a dark road like I was a day or two before?

We’ve sat around the table year after year playing Mille Borne. We groan as someone plays a flat tire or out of gas card on us, then break into laughter. We keep playing, hoping for the remedy card that will allow us to roll on. It’s just all part of the game. We seem to understand that, and we just enjoy each other’s company along the way.

But it’s funny how we get annoyed and sometimes even angry with God as life’s little perils come our way. We don’t get that promotion we counted on. Our dream house deal falls through. Our best efforts go unrecognized. We lose a job. Our dearest friend throws us over for newer, more “beneficial” friendships. Our career seems to have taken us down a deadend road. We feel as though we’re sitting still while others around us move on successfully. There are times when it seems you just can’t get there from here.

If we could just smile and say, “Oh well. Any day now I’m going to break out of this jam and roll on.” If we could just realize that God may have played the stop sign or speed limit on us to prevent our settling for something less than his perfect will or he may allow delay or failure in our lives to make us long for the remedy……Jesus.

Just like in our old game, we’re always looking for the safety cards, those guarantees in life. There aren’t any. At least nothing this world affords. Jesus is the only thing we can be certain of and the safety he offers is steadfast and sure. You can travel life’s road passing every milestone with confidence that somehow it will all be okay and that someday you’ll arrive safely home.

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Janice

P.S. You’re gonna go look for that game, aren’t ya.

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