Table Blessings

One of the first prayers my mother taught me was a table blessing most likely learned by most of us.  "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Amen."  My children learned it as they came to the table prepared for them by their parents.  It is a simple prayer with profound truths.  God is great and there is no one like Him.  There is none to whom He can be compared.  God is good.  He is always good.  Even in the worst of times, God is still good.  His nature does not change according to what we experience.    

It is also a good thing for us to learn the importance of gratitude.  To thank God for food is to thank Him for a specific gift in a specific moment, but it is also a prayer which points us toward a wider view of our life and His world.  We are gifted with food not because we are affluent and can buy it at the grocery store, but because the created order has been created and ordained to provide what is needed to sustain life.  There is nothing which comes to our table, or into our life which has not passed through His hands.  

As the years have added up, my table blessing has changed.  When I bow my head around the table to give thanks to God, I also see those who are His instruments in bringing food to our table.  I grew up hearing table blessings which included a prayer of thanks for those hands which have prepared the food that in a narrow sense meant those who worked in the kitchen next to the dining room.  What we know is that it is bigger than just those few.  I now often include in table blessings a prayer of gratitude for all those hands which have brought the food to table which casts a wide net meant to include such people as the farm laborers, the truck drivers, and the people who work at the local grocery store. Mom taught my sister and me early to be grateful and I hope, as you do, that I have continued to value that teaching and have passed it on to those who are following after me.