And from the weirdest thing... I forgot to pray over my meal this morning!!
I will go back a little before I go forward. I have been writing out the New Testament this Lent (a task that will continue far into the rest of the year!) because a mentor once told me that if you want to get to know Jesus, and be more like Him, read the gospels! And I commit so much more to memory and to heart when I write it, because I have to pay attention to it longer and I have a little bit of an attention issue sometimes. :)
But as I have been reading and writing I have realized something quite amazing. How many times Christ redirects the people's focus! They would come to Him and accuse Him (Yes! Accuse Jesus!) of sins according to the Law of Moses. For instance, a recent one, the Pharisees come to Jesus and say, "Why don't your disciples wash their hands before they eat?"
A good question... Any self respecting mother might ask the same question. But Jesus says, and I'm paraphrasing, why are you always focused on the body!! Why do you take those laws and translate them to the physical care of you body. He refocuses them! Redirects their attention to the spiritual side. He says, "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man "unclean"."
What a beautiful epiphany this could have been for those that wanted to hear it. The Laws were not being lived out to their fullest. They were not being experienced or understood to the depth they were created to be experienced and understood!
So fast forward a couple days and here I am this morning, forgetting to pray over my food. I ate it all up to! And then I was like, "Oh! Wow! I actually FORGOT to pray over my food!" Even Jesus thanked God for His food in Scripture. He thanked God, broke the bread and passed it out...
So my first thought was to pray over it now that it was in my stomach! That is my way! If one day time just stops and backs up so I can go back and do something I forgot, or fix something, I wouldn't be surprised, because I pray for it all the time. But I prayed for the food that was in my stomach already. I prayed that even though it went in unblessed, that God would bless it now! I know... I know. A little silly.
Then I thought about how many things have come into my body without first being blessed. I went a little deeper and thought about all the things in my life before I knew Christ, that I allowed into my body... through my eyes, my mouth. Things I let into my heart that weren't blessed. Things that hadn't left it yet. I asked God to come and clean there. To take the bad and make it good.
Then I thought, you know, Christ is my daily bread! There is this tradition to pray over the foods we eat, to thank God for them, bless them, and then eat them... I do this at least three times a day. Do I have a tradition set in my life that recognized Christ as my daily bread?! Do I actively think of it every time I go to the Word to fill up, or ask His assistance in my struggles or prayers for others? Do I thank Him? Bless Him? 3 times a day? 2 times a day? Once?
Honestly. No. I might thank Him for the Sunshine, or the food, or the job, but how often do I thank Him for Him? Sometimes. But is it something I am living in? Living out? A culture of gratitude and thanks for Christ, giver of life for the heart, soul, spirit? Not just the food and finances? Not just the body? And I realized, that this tradition of our culture may have deeper meaning. The Law wasn't bad when Jesus came, He even said that, it just wasn't fulfilled. The tradition isn't bad, to thank God for His provision in our daily needs, but it isn't fulfilled! If we refocus that tradition of gratitude from the body to the spiritual, it becomes so much more!
Christ offers so much more than food. Or water. Or four walls, a car and a job. He shows us how to Love. He shows us how to live. He gives us what is truly filling and worth living for... Himself!
Thank You, Jesus, for You! For You are my daily bread! Thank you God, for Your Word! For Love! For Your TRUTH, Your LIFE, and Your WAY! May it bless me. Bless my body. My heart. My soul. My spirit! God, You are Good! Thank You! In Jesus name, Amen!
