Bringing the Refreshments

When Ray and I were growing up, party hostesses, club volunteers, and school room mothers provided refreshments.

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When Ray and I were growing up, party hostesses, club volunteers, and school room mothers provided refreshments. Party refreshments at a home were likely to include cookies, finger sandwiches, cake, mints, mixed nuts, and punch, served into glass cups from a punch bowl.

Children having refreshments at the 4-H Club spring fair at Adrian, Oregon, May 1941.
Children having refreshments at the 4-H Club spring fair at Adrian, Oregon, May 1941. Courtesy Library of Congress.

I don’t often hear the word refreshments used that way anymore. The first meaning that came to mind just now when I thought of the word “refresh” was refreshing my computer. Times have changed.

When folks gather for Thanksgiving dinner, it’s not for refreshments, but for a whole yummy meal. Still, these gatherings do offer opportunities for refreshment–the kind that feeds the heart.

My prayer is that you find opportunities to be the caterer of soul refreshment during this Thanksgiving weekend, following in the footsteps of Onesiphorus . . .

The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus,
for he often refreshed me . . .
2 Timothy 1:16a

. . . and the Corinthians . . .

In addition to our own encouragement, 
we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was,
because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.
2 Corinthians 7:13

. . . while God refreshes you.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, . . . 
“For I satisfy the weary ones and 
refresh everyone who languishes.”
Jeremiah 31:23, 25

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