Facetime #3

"The blessing" or "giving thanks", even to those who don't pray much at all, is one form of prayer widely practiced. At home it is usually our girls that pray and give thanks. There have been times when they try to out do one another and other times when they clam up asking my husband or myself to pray. My girls usually include many details of the day in their thanks in addition to thanksgiving for the food and "the hands that preapred it". I'm not sure when those words began to be added, but the make a regular appearance.

I guess like with any other time we pray or approach God on a regular basis, in the same time and place, we can lose the sense of awe at that moment and make it a sing songy, meaningless exercise. I know when I recognize this in myself I try to stop and get perspective at just what I am doing and how God wants to hear the depths of our heart, the peaks, the valleys, the eternal gratitude for His provision.

The church I serve is frequently visited by homeless and hungry people, mostly men. In the last months we have been giving out food regularly. This has grown to include one member who has felt called to pull out the grill every Sunday and feed the passersby on the busy road in front of our church. Those who offer money don't understand why we won't take it. That is not what it is about. It is about offering a gift of grace in the form of food, and grace is a free, unmerited gift! Those who can't offer anything but a smile and some conversation are incredibly grateful. They know what it is like to be hungry and therefore appreciate and give thanks for the food.

How many of us can honestly say we have ever really been hungry? I mean the kind of hungry when you don't know when or if you are going to eat again. I mean the kind of hungry when you can't choose, there are no choices, you will take whatever you can get.
So many of us are blessed and we don't even realize it. We know we will eat or can choose to eat or not eat 3+ meals a day. Not only that but we can choose what we eat. We can afford to throw tons of food away without blinking.

I had a conversation Sunday with some folks about our near inability to fully comprehend the depths of human suffering unless we have suffered in some way shape or form in our lives. Perhaps this is the gift of suffering for ourselves, that we are moved to act when next we see another suffering.

Give thanks for God's blessings, whether they are edible ones or the family kind that are sitting around the table.