Who would like to say grace?
Hands clasped, heads bowed, steaming plates in front of us, and the question of grace fills the air. Americans once muttered prayers over their meals as a matter of course, giving the words little thought. Such religious traditions no longer abide in many households. Rote prayers fell silent across a growing number of communities within the last generation.
When ritual swallowed the question’s meaning, the world lost sight of something essential to its vitality–grace.
Who will say it? Will someone please explain why thanks for our meal is called that? Does anyone at the table remember what it is?
A starving mother, an impoverished tribal elder, or the working poor family with no assistance might recognize the relationship between a meal and salvation from death. Uncertainty of nourishment increases its value. Some thank God for more than the tastiness of their food.
Grace involves greater things than food. Unearned blessings, love-gifts from God, and all the things which color our souls with abundant life seem to factor into its category. The primary and overarching definition of grace remains embodied in only One. Grace cannot be explained as a what or a collection of whats. Grace is a Who.
Christ, the means by which we have access to everlasting life and relationship with God, is the Person of Grace. He laid down His life to provide what we could never earn and save us from the only thing to which we were entitled –death.
Will you live a prayer? Will you take your thankfulness beyond rituals, after you leave the dinner table and exit the doors of your home?
In a world of entitlement, who will say GRACE? Which life will say JESUS CHRIST?
“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:4-10).