Heroes and Loads

January 20, 2008

 Grace Before Meals

 We say “grace” before meals. Often times this “grace” consists of a rushed “God is great God is good, Let us thank Him for our food. Amen”. The words pour out of our mouths like we were NASCAR announcers telling the diners to ready their forks so the food inhalation race could begin! My son, God love him, has a game where the last person with thumbs up on the table has to say grace, like it’s a chore. (The game is in good fun and guarantees that grace will be said by someone and that everyone at the table is thinking about it…so there is some good that comes from the game. Maybe the game should change to… who gets to say grace?)

I am curious about how much thought we actually give to the words of the blessing? Why do we pray over our food? What is grace anyway?

Grace by definition is:

1. Beauty or charm of form , movement or expression (a ballet dancer)
2. Goodwill or favor
3. Delay granted for payment or of an obligation
4. Short prayer before a meal
5. Title of arch-bishop, duke, or duchess
6. Love of God toward man
7. To decorate or dignify

These definitions reflect our God so well…

1. God’s graceful and beautiful movements/steps in his care for us
2. His goodwill toward our needs showing us favor
3. Giving us a grace period for our debt
4. A prayer before meals
5. He holds a title much higher than duke!
6. His love toward us shown by his care and provision
7. …and by his grace we are dignified as his sons and daughters! 

Life is so very fragile. If Earth was a little closer to the sun we would burn up, farther away we would freeze. If Earth spun any faster we would be thrown off or any slower we would float off. If there was less water in the oceans the mountains would fall due to the lack of opposing pressures. Too much rain causes crops to drown and not enough rain causes the crops to shrivel in the fields. We need a precise percentage of oxygen; not enough we suffocate and too much we burn up on the inside.

There is a cosmic-universal-detailed-balancing act that is constantly going on and God is holding the scales.

God provides for us everything we need to live; air, water, shelter, and yes… food too! (my personal favorite!) It is by God’s grace alone that we survive, yet he is so good at balancing nature that we take our life for granted. However, let one thing change in the balance; like loosing a job, a serious injury, cancer, emphysema/bronchitis, a bad crop, mad cow disease, polluted waters, drought (you get the idea!), then it is a brand new game! We remember that God is in control and we start begging for help. (yep, I am guilty of this one too)

Genesis 2:7 states; “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” God not only breathed life into us, but he also sustains our life according to His will.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for all that you do on a daily basis for our survival. Thank you for the food that you provide, the air you give, and the grace you have afforded me to know that you are responsible for it all. But Father, above all I thank you for providing us a way to go to heaven with you, and to be counted as your child. Please help me to always remember, when saying grace at meal times, how dependant I am on you for everything and to praise you for what a good job you do at being God; The Lord of the Universe… and me.

Amen