There’s no better meal than a plate topped with fresh veggies, creamy mashed potatoes, crunchy corn on the cob, flaky bread rolls and a few slices of warm roasted turkey. Just thinking about getting seconds puts me in a food coma for the rest of Thanksgiving break.

Every Thanksgiving someone in my family says a quick prayer of thanks before we dive into the meal that grandma had spent all day preparing.

“Thank you God for this food and this family… oh and football! Amen.”

While God truly blesses us with the abundance of food and the ability for the family to come together on such a warm holiday, I feel like there’s something missing from the typical prayer. Or maybe I should say someone.

My family doesn’t carve out time to thank the turkey that covers our plates one minute and is devoured the next. It is my personal belief that turkeys should be acknowledged just the way we take time to acknowledge God.

Thanksgiving is a holiday during which we give thanks to everything and everyone in our lives. Everyone except the turkey my mom bought from the butcher, who bought that turkey from a farm where the turkey was raised… and you know how that ends.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t eat turkey because that would mean cutting out the main course. But since turkey is so crucial to Thanksgiving, I think we ought to take a moment to appreciate the delicious meat that sits on our plates every year.

Just like Jesus Christ died for the greater good of humanity, the turkeys we and our families gobble up also died for the greater good of our Thanksgiving meals. Without Jesus, there would be no human salvation. Without the turkey, there would be no proper Thanksgiving.

Of course, our love for turkeys doesn’t equate to our love for God. But for the men who watch football and hang out all day long with grumbling tummies, a Thanksgiving turkey dinner is about the next best thing to saving grace that they can think of in the light of the moment.

Not to mention the women who cook tirelessly in the kitchen all day just waiting for the time when they can sit down and enjoy the culinary masterpiece they’ve created. When the hour comes to carve the turkey, everyone is practically drooling over the thought of the most prized centerpiece of the table.

It wouldn’t hurt to give a little extra love to the turkey before digging in.

All I know is that my prayer was a little longer this year in my household since I included a long, passionate eulogy for the turkey, thanking him for providing us with his juicy meat. I’ve listed my prayer below for anyone interested in thanking their turkey dinners.