Saying Grace

 


Prayers before meal times are becoming as scarce as hens teeth.  It used to be called, “Saying Grace”.  Okay, many Christians will still do that in the privacy of their own home – just don’t expect it in a restaurant.  I recall a lunchtime meeting many years ago, hosted by a friend.  As our food arrived he asked: “So John, do we ‘say grace’ or do we just scratch our heads for a bit?”

I recall two instances where a prayer for God’s blessing on our meal met with interesting reactions.  The first was a women’s event organised by my wife, Merle.  It was some kind of “product party” where the ladies have the opportunity to suss out some new merchandise.  There were quite a few children there and Merle had prepared lunch for them.  She asked the kiddies to put their hands together and close their eyes while she gave thanks to God and asked for His blessing on the food.  Afterwards the company representative – a lady in her thirties – commented, “I’ve never before experienced someone saying a prayer before a meal.  Thank you for that!”  Yes. In some circles saying grace before meals is even scarcer than hens’ teeth.

The second occasion where there was a similar reaction was at a crowded family birthday party.  I had been asked by the family to pray before the meal.  When I sat down again at our table, a young couple opposite us expressed surprise but said that they thought it was a wonderful thing to acknowledge a ‘Higher Being’ as the source of our gifts and blessings.  The lady in the partnership asked, “Why don’t we do that more often?”  Why indeed?

Here in Northern New South Wales we’ve just recently lived through the uncertainty and the upheaval of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.  People in our area were warned to stock up before the cyclone crossed the coast.  And people did.  Strangely, the first thing to disappear off the supermarket shelves was toilet paper.  Well, maybe not so strange – I guess the fear of a cyclone could well cause more trips to the loo...!?!  But before long the meat shelves were empty too and on the day before the supermarkets closed for an enforced long-weekend you couldn’t buy bread or milk for the love of money.  It brought back memories of 2020 and the Covid-lockdowns when supermarket shelves were also very bare.

The point is that we really are very dependent on God’s blessing when it comes to our daily provisions.  In our modern Western society we often fail to recognise that.  It’s just so easy in our culture to forget that Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread!”  Dependent on God for our daily food...?  Of course not...!  The supermarket shelves are always well-stocked.  Well, at least they are until... until there is a crisis caused by a pandemic or by a tropical cyclone.

Sorry, wrong!  When the Avian Flu recently invaded our poultry farms, eggs very quickly disappeared off the supermarket shelves.  Some years ago when another cyclone tore through our major banana growing region it became almost impossible to buy bananas.  The fact is that the food chain for us as human beings is easily threatened, if not by storms and pandemics then by truckie strikes and droughts.

It may be helpful for us to think sometimes of the people of Israel after their exodus from Egypt.  They suddenly find themselves in the desert where hardly a blade of grass will grow.  And when the people grumble and complain about the lack of food, what does God do?  He wonderfully provides for them bread from heaven – manna!  The wonderful thing is that the God who provided manna from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness is still able to provide for us the necessities of daily life.  And that’s precisely why Christians have always surrounded their meals with prayer.  That’s not just to thank the Lord that in His kindness He has again provided.  It’s also to acknowledge that unless God blesses the food we receive it will do us no good at all.

Saying grace before meals is a way of humbling ourselves before our Creator God and denying our human autonomy and independence.  Jesus taught His followers to trust in Him for all our material necessities.  He said that if we seek Him and His Kingdom first then all these other things will be given to us as well.

John Westendorp
2MaxFM 30/3/2025

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