Ron Scogin: Come and gather around the table

By Ron Scogin
Guest columnist

When I feel the cool morning breeze across my farm’s hilltop as fall begins its changes, my mind will turn back to the same feeling I feel every year. We will now enter the fall weather, the leaves changing and thank God, the grass will slow down growing.
Here is where our minds will realize, we must change our lifestyle of our everyday. The hunters will grow their feed plots; the last cutting of the hay will start and our final preparation to cold weather will guide our everyday life.
As these works are performed and concluded, we will set our minds on other details, “The Holidays.” Fall festivals, the first day of gun season, which is always followed by Thanksgiving.  Here, the people who work in the workforces of this world look for those paid days off.
As for my family, my wife will get phone calls from our daughter setting up visiting times and meals. Exchanges in recipes as we retired folks start in anticipation, like ketchup from the ketchup bottle. Y’all younger folks will not remember that commercial... And we will start looking forward to the family gatherings.
There are typically two set days of the year when the holidays and meals meet with great happiness--Thanksgiving and Christmas. On a normal schedule, what I feel inside will grow into great heights, as I watch my very loved family pull into the driveway. They will exit the vehicle and close their arms around us, and we will all tell each other, “Boy, have we missed you!”
Typically, preparations are already on the path to a great meal. We will exchange explanations of what we have done since the last time we were together. Then we will hear the call, “It’s ready. Let’s eat.”
With the growth of my family, our table has grown from just my wife and I, to five others, with a total of at least seven. We will then pull up three more chairs and crowd around a four-seat table. Difficult, but it always happens.
My wife and I are very musically inclined. Here is where I see the heritage shining in the children. Music comes alive to me. And most times, I will recall a specific song I have heard by the late Kenny Rogers, “Till the Season Comes Around Again.”  
With the lyrics and music coming alive in my mind and ears, I meld what I am watching to what the words are saying. “Come and gather around at the table with the spirit of family and friends, and we will all join hands and remember this moment, till the season comes around again.”
Here is where my eyes will tear up, chills will cover me as I hit the peak of the change of the season.
As we sit down, no one will pick up their fork or spoon until prayers are spoken over the meal. Then, we come to the full-blown conclusion of why we love the holidays.
To me, gathering around the table is the ultimate gift from God’s ultimate gift, Jesus Christ. He has given us the freedom we all share to living here. Because of my belief in the future, “our eternity,” I will look forward to the great meal after this life is over. This is where we will gather around the largest table you can imagine, for the meal at the marriage of the Lamb.
I know as we celebrated Thanksgiving, there were events which took place, setting to life why we acknowledge it so deeply. I know our country’s founding fathers sowed so we could reap.
As the day approached, schedules were set, with some remarking, “Let’s meet at Cracker Barrel or any other out-of-our-kitchen restaurant.”
But, I love my family tradition.  Here or there, we always gather in the living room, outside playing basketball or flying the drones and sharing each other’s company, which we will remember.
This lifespan is short in comparison to the next lifespan. How we spend it gets God’s attention. We can invent new paths, or we can stay within the old paths. But I find the old paths much more satisfying.
For those who have created new paths, I challenge you to try the old ones. Because as time goes on, there will be fewer faces attending those meals.
As with my family, I can no longer talk with my father, my mother, some sisters or brother because they no longer can attend these meals, except in spirit. I cannot give them a big hug, as with others whom we love or those we want to ignore. Give them a big hello and a happy holiday.  They may not be perfect, but they are all we’ve got.
So put down those phones, set aside those everyday attractions and give those days all your attention.
As for Christmas, the same goes. We have recharacterized its true meaning. The reason for its true existence has disappeared from its day and meal.
Presents are given to each other, but do we give the reason for the season, His Present? Let’s be bold and proud as true Americans and “remove the X from the mas” and put back the real name and reason.
Turn on some real Christmas music, and enjoy what time we have with each other.
When grandmother or mom can no longer stand in the kitchen on that day, I challenge the youth to pick up the torch, become responsible to the family. Here we have only two out of 365 days of each year. In some cases, four out of 365. This is because my wife starts the day before so she can prepare everything she knows she needs to fix, so everyone on those days can have what they like to eat.
So come and gather around the table, with the spirit of family and friends. Take the time to hold hands, as we are giving the blessings. And when it’s over, look to next year again.
(Editor’s note: Ron wrote this guest column especially for the Journal-Record. Those gathered around his table this holiday season include his wife of 53 years, Gloria, their daughter, Heather, her husband, Gary Phillips III, and the Scogin’s three grandchildren: Parker, Zoie and Rachel. If you enjoy Ron’s writing, you would probably also enjoy his preaching. He pastors for the Restoration Community Church located near the Marion County Lake.)