Inspired by the Food on My Plate – Grateful for Gift of God

A few thoughts to pray & journal on

It is a common practice to say grace before eating... to be thankful for what we have to eat and drink and to be grateful for who prepared the meal.

Have you taken a moment to think about all it took for that food to get onto your plate? All the toil from every person involved in from field to grocery store? It is absolutely amazing what occurs to get food onto our plate.

As you think about how much the world has changed over the last 100 years or so, have you acknowledged the inspirations that God gave to allow us our current level of availability of food? 

So many people are involved in the transformation - directly and indirectly. As we think about food and drink as a gift from God, we need to acknowledge all of them.

Many gifts

Even a simple breakfast of a fried egg, toast and coffee. Just think about it all the transformation steps involved for food to become breakfast...

• It is almost miraculous how the hens in my backyard convert feed, grass and insects into eggs.
• An organic dairy farmer in Texas fed his cows, got milk, transported it across the county for it to be turned into butter. Then it made its way to the grocery store and my home to fry my egg with.
• Coffee grown in South America is picked by many hands and goes through complex series of storage and shipping steps to get to the US for roasting and packaging, before arriving at the grocery store and eventually my pantry.
• Even though the local bakery made the bread, the flour, salt and yeast each had a complex journey to get there.
• We have clean running water to use inside for cooking that my parents and grandparents did not have as young children. (For a moment I don't want to think about what the water company does with the water that is used in my home and each of these aforementioned steps along the way.)
• Besides the people involved in the direct transformation of each ingredient or the transportation between each location, there are all the back office people helping these operations run smoothly.

I give thanks for all who participated in bringing it from field to my plate. And I offer a prayer for their well-being.

While I am cynical about a lot of what has occurred in industry these days, looking back 100 years ago it was so much harder for people and fewer options. Just think 100 years ago, basic services that we take for granted like running water, indoor plumbing and electricity were still being rolled out across the US. The advances in transportation have made the world smaller and much easier for ingredients like coffee to be widely available everywhere around the globe. Refrigerated trucks and shipping containers allows for food items to be safely transported longer distances and periods of time.

I appreciate the progress that God inspired in those that lead the advancements. God, please guide that technology to be used for good. I pray that the tinkering of scientists to re-create God's Foods does not go too far. Advancements should bring people closer together and not be used to create separation from God.

Thank you for the gifts, God! I'll savor each bite!

My hope for you..

I hope that these words (or what you experience through doing this as a journaling exercise) can serve to inspire and energize changes in lifestyle and food choices. You deserve to have flourishing health to best be able to serve God, Family & Country.