Have we learned to love God with our gratitude? We sang the chorus "Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart, Give thanks to the Holy One" as part of our community Thanksgiving service and raised money to feed our hungry neighbors. It felt good, but I wonder how much gratitude fills our hearts for the meals and snacks on our own tables each day?
I developed gestational diabetes during my pregnancy with Julie. It was my fault. I was skinny (5' 9" and 112 lbs.) and under the impression that "eating for two" meant I could eat for two sumo wrestlers. At one point, I was drinking a gallon of whole milk along with a box of Little Debbies each day. I paid dearly for this gluttony as I was sentenced to a meager 1200-calorie diet which excluded fried foods, sweets, and even artificial sweeteners. Throw in the emotional havoc diabetes can cause and you have an unhappy pregnant gal crying in the candy aisle at Piggly Wiggly because I could look but I couldn't touch. People stepped lightly past me and no one bought candy that day.
However, as in all things, God used this experience to teach me true gratitude for what I could and did have. Meals became a slow-down time when I relished my food in new ways. First, I had to plan meals with care and search for different ways to prepare what I was allowed to have. Next, because I had carefully planned, the plates had to reveal the importance of what they held. I arranged my evening snack of half a banana, a cup of skim milk and four graham crackers on a real plate at the table with a napkin handy. Eating was no longer about getting the food from the plate into my mouth but about getting the most out of each meal by absorbing aromas, colors and textures. I looked forward to meals and made each bite last as long as possible. While it may sound like I became more obsessed than ever with food, I found a new contentment and gratitude for it. Scarfing down whatever I wanted whenever I wanted didn't satisfy or I wouldn't have "needed" as much food. But when I slowed down and made each meal a mini-celebration, a Thanksgiving, the food satisfied because the experience satisfied. I've never enjoyed food more than when I had fewer choices and less of each choice.
Maybe my experience explains why Thanksgiving food tastes better than most meals we have throughout the rest of the year. We take time to turn a meal into an experience. We're conscious of colors, aromas, arrangement and we anticipate what's coming. We savor the moments instead of eating out of habit. We stop and think to be thankful to the God we may take for granted 364 days out of the year. I plan to savor everything on the table this Thanksgiving but I also want to remember that less is more when it's eaten with gratitude to the God who gave it.
Father forgive us when we forget to love You with our gratitude. We're spoiled with sweets and treats and don't appreciate what we have. It's no wonder You allow times when the "fig tree does not bud." Teach us to be grateful for what You put before us. Help us share what we have so Thanksgiving is an experience and not about stuffing ourselves. Guide us to have the same goal with spiritual food: we're satiated to the point of "needing" more variety and different experiences to excite and revive us while others are starving for the milk of the Gospel. Teach us to show You our gratitude by loving and giving to others.
"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my
Savior." Habakkuk 3:17-18
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea," Psalm 46:1
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