In his recent book, Simply Christian, the Anglican bishop and New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright, comments:

at certain places and moments God’s future and God’s past (that is, events like Jesus’ death and resurrection) arrive in the present — rather as though you were to sit down to a meal and discover your great-great-grandparents, and also your great-great-grandchildren, turning up to join you. That’s how God’s time works.

It brought to mind Micheal O’Siadhail’s poem, “Courtesy:”

I bring my basketful to serve
Our table. Everything mine is yours.
Everything. Without reserve.


Lost faces. Those whose heirs
I was. My print-out of their genes,
Seed and breed of forebears.

Whatever I’ve become — courtesy
Of lovers, friends or friends of friends.
All those traces in me.

The living and dead. My sum
Of being. A host open and woundable.
Here I am.

A blessed Thanksgiving.