Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Thanksgiving Day is a good time to think about one of the most common times of giving thanks — that of mealtime. One of my earliest memories about mealtime giving of thanks is someone being asked, “Please say the blessing” or “Please ask the blessing.”
This expression about thanksgiving at mealtime might find an early example in the instruction given Israel in Deuteronomy 8:10: “When you have eaten and are full then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.” The most notable change for must of us is that we say the blessing before we eat rather than after we are full although this latter timing might be a refreshing change in something that too easily becomes routine.
‘Bless the food’
A variation of the expression about the blessing at mealtime is the common invitation for someone to “bless the food.” While we understand what is meant it does raise a question about how servings of food are to be blessed. It is easier to think of blessing God who gives us the food or blessing the ones who have earned, prepared or served it.
Even so we do read about Jesus at the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 blessing the fish after having broken the bread: “They also had a few small fish and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them” (Mark 8:7).
In similar expression Matthew 26:26, in recounting the Last Supper reports, “And as they were eating Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples.”
So we might conclude the idea of blessing the food at mealtime has a good precedence even though we do not know what Jesus said in either of His blessings. Our intention in blessing the food might simply be to ask that it be nourishing.
A variation of this last expression has occasionally been simply, “Please bless the table.” We might take this as including not only the food and drink but also the fellowship to be enjoyed around the table among family members and friends.
Another expression related to giving thanks at mealtime is, “Please say grace for us.” The implication is that inasmuch as the Bible declares, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17), giving of thanks should focus on divine grace that has been given in the form of good food and good table fellowship. May all of us enjoy a real “thanksgiving” experience at our table.
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