Thank you, Lord for This Food and all Your Many Blessings
So began my dad’s standard table
blessing--one that seemed to cover it nicely. In my home, meal time was family
time, talk time, and leisure time. My dad always began it with his prayer of thanks.
The custom of giving thanks at meals, at home and eating out, is not as strong
as it once was. Maybe we are too distracted and too busy to give God a moment.
That is our loss.
In the backyard garden, rabbits are
eating my second planting of lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage and there is a
definite chill in the night air. We are beginning that season of Halloween and
All Saint’s Sunday, charge conference, stewardship campaigns, and preparation
for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Bible says that any time is a good time to
give thanks for God’s blessings in life, meaning not so much money, power, or
position but instead God’s love, mercy, and grace. Garrison Keillor wrote that maybe there is
only one prayer that we should pray and that is “Thank you, Lord,” for life and everything about life: the sun
rising, our child at play, our favorite green shirt—because just to speak a
word of thanks reminds us of God’s goodness to us all the time. So I invite you
to make a list of things for which you are grateful to God. Here’s mine:
My family. Karen is God’s grace
incarnate in my life and my children Daniel, Jessica, and Rachel (and now
grandson Sam) have enriched my life in so many ways.
My sister-in-law, Amy, who will
soon donate one of her kidneys to Daniel.
My staff at Embry Hills UMC who are
dedicated, dependable, and hard working; and underpaid. We are a team.
My children-in-law: James and Katie
complement Jessica and Daniel in so many ways; Our son and daughter are better
people because of their spouses—God’s gifts to Jessica and Daniel (and to Karen
and me).
Volunteers in the church (and too
many to name them all) who clean the sanctuary, run the website, repair the leaky roof and faulty electrical,
train the acolytes, prepare communion, chair committees, stuff Snax Sax, pray
with the broken hearted, usher us in and out of worship, and many other not-so-glamorous
jobs that make up the holy work of God.
The Craftsmen. Need I say more?
Friends and pastors—Jimmy Moor, Richard
and Elaine Puckett, John Simmons, Willis Moore, Rex Kaney—who work hard to keep
me sound and sane and help me be your pastor.
The medical staff at the Emory Transplant
Center who have worked to provide
Daniel a more normal, productive, and healthy life; and the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for offering
Rachel an opportunity to find some healing.
I speak of being in the season of
thanksgiving. Every season should be one of thanksgiving. When we count our
blessings and consider the source, it is hard not to be thankful and generous
ourselves and not only with our wealth but also with our prayers, presence,
gifts, service, and witness. Psalm 136 says it so well: “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures
for ever. O give thanks to
the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of
lords, for his steadfast love endures for ever;”
