10/22/2026
It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 1944. A classroom of children stood at their desks, hands over hearts, and then their teacher began to pray — and broke down partway through.
She sat them down and explained: she had lost her husband on the shores of Normandy that June. This would be her first Thanksgiving alone.
Chuck was ten years old. Here's what he carried home:
"I remember walking home from school, looking up at the sky and thinking about how much I loved my country and my family. And how blessed I was to have them—favoritism, faults, and all. It was a moment when I was awakened by grace."
"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Gratitude rarely arrives because our circumstances improved. More often it arrives because we caught sight of what we already had. A boy who felt overlooked in his own house walked home under an open sky and found himself thankful for that same house — favoritism, faults, and all.
Thanksgiving has been his favorite holiday ever since.
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