Be Fed

Every year when Mother’s Day rolls around my siblings and I set out to make it a special day for our mother. Every celebration of course centers around food! What will we eat? We are southern to the core so our celebrations are not complete without pimento cheese and fried chicken. So that’s where we start. Our celebrations are often centered around food. It is a tradition as old as time. Many of Jesus’ teachings centered around feeding others and enjoying fellowship over a meal. He knew our deep need for food. Jesus knew that food nourished not only the body, but also the soul when we come together to celebrate God’s gifts over a meal. Jesus taught his disciples how to feed thousands with 12 loaves of bread and a couple of fish. He invited himself to dinners and feasted with all sorts of people over a meal. We feast week after week at the Lord’s Supper to be nourished through him. Being fed is an essential element then to receiving and sharing God’s love. It is our risen Lord who appears to his followers and directs those who love him to feed his sheep, tend his lambs.

This past Saturday a dozen or so volunteers from Good Shepherd gathered to share a meal with our Harrisburg neighbors. We fed over 130 people a warm nutritious lunch at The Christ Church Community Meal. Men, women and children lined up to serve plates of fried chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, bread and fruit. Iced tea and lemonade flowed as a variety of deserts were devoured. We filled plates and cups from 11:30 until 1:00 and were greeted with smiles and thank you’s from almost every person who came through the line to be fed.

In the hustle of the Community Meal a little family caught my eye. I could not help but notice the quiet young mother and her four little ducklings. I watched as the family of five patiently went through the serving line. Each little one followed their mother and did as they were told, miraculous in any setting! As they sat down mom directed her little ones to put their napkins in their laps and then said, “Let’s say our Blessing.” With eyes closed, heads bowed and little hands held together in prayer they said their Blessing together, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. By his hands we all are fed. Give us Lord our daily bread. Amen.” I had to fight back the tears. I was grateful for the young mother who sat prayerfully in the midst of strangers and chaos and gave God thanks as her little ones followed her lead. I did not know this woman’s story. I had no idea where she had come from or where she was going. It was obvious that she preferred her privacy. Regardless of whatever her circumstances may have been, as I watched her I realized I was the one who was being fed.

I was grateful to be in the presence of this humble family, no matter what their story. I knew in that instant that I desperately n
eeded to be fed, being reminded to be thankful in all things. Often, those of us who have the gifts to share are the sheep and the lambs that desperately need feeding. No matter how much we debate over the most effective way to help people in “need” this is the “why” we do it. Jesus knows we are blessed when we tend his lambs and feed his sheep. I was blessed to have been given the opportunity to feed and be fed. God is great and God is good!

Thank you Lord for daily bread.