They Ate and Were Satisfied

This year has been full of changes when it comes to food and me. I have learned so much and tried a million new things (flax "eggs", scrambled tofu, sweet potato "cheese", tempeh "bacon", cashew "cream cheese" and fakeadillas to name a few). I think I've read more labels in the last 10 months than the rest of my life combined. I've found myself migrating to things with fewer ingredients, and real ones at that.

This past week has helped me to take another step on this journey. I've been giving thanks for each meal...not perfectly, as habits can take time to form, but I've been thanking Jesus for the food, for the earth that grew it, for the people who harvested it, the people who packaged and stocked it, the people who made it, the house it was made in, the seasonings that flavored it. I've come to have a more meaningful connection with my food. It gets me thinking about all the pieces coming together. If you don't know what's in your food how do you give thanks? If you don't know where it came from, it's made more shallow? If you don't know who made/grew it, you lose the element of a person to person relationship. And if you don't know the One who made all the creatures of the land and the sea and every plant on the earth and put the water in its place and called it good, you might be missing something.

After Jesus gave thanks to multiply the fish and bread, Mark's gospel records

And they all ate and were satisfied. Mark 6:42 

And when He does it again,

And they ate and were satisfied Mark 8:8 

I caught this today and was struck by that word satisfied. Jesus gave thanks and all were satisfied. They weren't stuffed. They weren't sick from eating. They weren't craving more. They were satisfied.

I think that saying grace is more about receiving grace than earning it. It's not something you check off on the list of habits of a good Christian. It's a recognition of being filled, of having been provided for. It's a lifting of empty hands and saying, "Yes, Jesus, I will take what You give, and I will give thanks because You have satisfied my deepest needs".