Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;
    I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.

• Psalm 7:17

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
    I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

• Psalm 9:1

“As we enjoyed the wonderful meal, we all raved to Allison about her amazing cooking skills.
” ‘Your kids are so fortunate to have you cooking for them!’
“Allison shrugged. ‘Oh, I don’t cook for them. If I made my kid these foods, they would just complain and pick them apart.’
“Oh, how convicting.
“Jesus often lays out an elaborate, beautiful, extraordinary meal for us. Yet we complain. We pick His gifts apart. We aren’t grateful for Hi incredible faithfulness and kindness and mercy.
“Still, He doesn’t stop cooking things up for us. Instead, He just keeps giving, whipping up elaborate gifts that we don’t deserve.”

• Erin MacPherson, Daily Guideposts 2022 (November 29)

How hard is it to thank God for all He has done?

It must be hard.  Our prayers to bless the food before a meal …

Never mind…

Remember back in the day when we used to bless the food before a meal?  Whoever said the prayer would say a word or two about blessing the food for the nourishment of our bodies and then fumble a couple of things.  Then everyone is thankful that he or she gets to the “amen.”

But if God had not given the farmer the rain when needed and the sunlight when needed and the firm ground to bring in the harvesters when harvest time came, what kind of a meal would we have?

If God did not watch over the farmer’s flock, would we have the eggs?  Where would the meat be?

What about the truckers that get the food to the grocery store?  And what about the job that the wage earner has, so that the food can be purchased and placed on the table?

But then, for a meal the nourish our bodies, our bodies have to function the way God designed them to function.  Yes, we can thank God for the design and thank Him for how our body breaks down that food from the chemical processes down to the cellular level as those nutrients get to where they are needed.

But in cooking the food, we have the utilities of the house to consider.

Every bit of this mentions people.  Some people deal with the food.  Some people deal with transportation.  Some people produce the electricity, gas, and water.  Others deal with picking up the trash.  God is taking care of them, so that the food can get to our table, just like God is taking care of us.

If you do not bless the food before a meal, maybe the children have a reason to whine and complain.

But then again, they are kids and they whine and complain anyway.  That does not prevent us from putting the food on the table.  And that should not prevent us from being thankful.  If you have ever had a time when there was no food on the table, you would have no trouble thanking God when there is food there.

Let us never forget that without God everything in our life that sustains life would not exist.  After all, God created us and everything around us.

One time many years ago, I was at someone’s house, and they said a very thoughtful blessing. The blessing was very organized. But as he was getting close to the end, he paused, maybe three or four seconds, and then he said, “And, Lord, I thank you for Fred and keep You hedge of protection around Fred. In Your name I pray, Amen.”

I had to ask, “Who is Fred?”

My friend stuck a fork in something on his plate and lifted it up. It could have been a chicken nugget, a green bean, or a dinner roll. Then my friend replied, “From the Feed and Seed Store to the farm to the processing plant to the grocery store to the guy who provides electricity to this house to the guy who signs my paycheck… There has got to be a Fred in there somewhere.”

Let us thank God, and maybe we can find our own “person” to represent all those unknown people who made the meal possible.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.