“And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed the.” (Genesis 3:21 NASB)
A family of six sits down at the table for their early Sunday morning meal. The family consist of 4 children, the mother, and the father. There are two boys and two girls; the former were six-year-old twins. The males sit on one side of the large, dining room table and the females are sitting on the other side. The food on the table looks delicious, a delightful meal, and definitely the favorite breakfast of the children. The father asks the son seated to his left to say grace. No sooner that everybody bows their heads and closes their eyes, the twin says, “Grace!” Heads stay bowed down for a second, waiting for the blessing of the food. When they raise their heads, the father raises his hand and gently taps the quick “praying” twin on the back of his head. Coming to his defense, the other twin says, “But Dad, he did what you said.” The father is about to show that there is not inequality in his dexterity and is ready to gently tap the concerned twin seated on his right on the back of his head, but he quickly pauses and seems to be contemplative for a moment
The father says, “You are right son.” I should have been more clearer in what I asked you to do. When I said, ‘Say grace,’ I meant for you to thank God for His undeserved favor for us by providing us with food on our table. And I wanted you to follow that by asking the Lord to graciously, kindly, bless the food that we are about to eat.” The father apologized to his son and softly rubbed his head where he had gently tapped him. It seems like all is well and everyone is about to grab a serving utensil and begin to eat. But the father says, “Now wait a minute, let me talk about grace a little bit first.” He started out with, “Grace watched over me all last night, and grace woke me up this morning.” For a minute, the other family members were thinking, “Well, I guess we won’t have to go to church today.” The father goes on to talk about grace, starting with the example of grace in the Genesis verse above. He stops by Ephesians and reminds the family that saints are saved by grace through faith. He keeps going and going and going, deep into the New Testament, all the way to the last verse in Revelation of John where he ends his discourse, saying, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen!” The father made sure he elaborated on grace. When he finished, he started to serve his plate. The twin on the left says, “Wait Dad! Aren’t you going to say grace first?” The father smiles and complies with his son’s suggestion. As they are eating, the father says, “Hurry now, we have to get to church on time.” Silence filled the air, but the Father was right, and nobody was going to question him and force a second “sermon.” Smile!
Perhaps today, as you are waiting for church services to begin, you can focus on God’s grace for a few minutes. And after church, when you go out to eat that Sunday meal, don’t forget to say “Grace!” Be blessed!
“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.” (Revelation 22:21 NASB)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King