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327. Ask God's blessings for the people along the way
"People along the way" are those men
and women who deserve our thanks and admiration for doing the most
ordinary of jobs. Jobs we don't think about. We do not consider,
when we eat our morning cereal, for example, all the people who have
had a hand in preparing the food on the table. First, there is God.
He created the earth, and the plants and flowers that are here for
us to enjoy. Then, there is the farmer, who replants his patch of
earth every year and sometimes more often, to bring in, with God's
help, a healthy crop of grain.
There isn't one item in our homes that didn't involve people who manufactured it, packaged and shipped it, and unfortunately, many of these jobs do not pay a lot. How could they, when that package of wheat is sold at our supermarket for very little money ($2/lbs). Did you know that wheat has been around for about 11,000 years? Many food products are made with wheat. And people are involved every step alone the way. In almost every industry there are hundreds of different people involved in the manufacturing of goods and services, but generally we do not think too deeply about them. We think we are the most important person in the world when we scream: "I want my cereal and I want it now!" at our wives. When have we really thanked her the last time when she brought us a bowl of cereal? Or is it just a "given" that it appears on the table when we sit down to eat? When was the last time we said a meal prayer, a very simple prayer. Before the meal: "Bless us Oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive through thy bounty through Christ Our Lord, Amen." That's a great prayer but I like this one as well: "We thank you Lord for the food we are about to receive and for all who had a hand in preparing it." May Our Lord bless you and grant you His peace!
Fred Schaeffer, SFO |
Wheat-based
cereal comes from grain that grows abundantly, a sea of amber waves
of grain. So it is true, what we eat comes from God. But we must
thank the farmer for his/her effort to bring in a yearly crop that
can feed us all. Farmers are persons along the way and we ask God's
blessings for them. The grain is harvested, and driven to the grain
elevator for storage. Here the wheat is cleaned and dried. From
there it does to a distribution point, where it is packaged for
further shipment, either overseas of in our supermarkets. There are
many people along the way involved in these processes, the drivers,
packagers (done by machine; someone has to program the software to
make the machines work!) Then it is sold to supermarkets in large
quantities, trucked once more to your local store, stacked on
shelves, priced by a inventory/pricer and then it is bought by you
or your friends and cooked before it is consumed. So there are a lot
of "people along the way" we could thank in prayer.