Reflection: Beholden

At break of dawn, covenant-keeping God,

I whisper and you’re all ears.

Your morning rays illumine my thoughts, my plans, my troubles

and with open hands I surrender them to you.

I stretch, rub the sleep from my eyes…

Now, awake and attentive,

I’m hungry to see what you, faithful Father, have in store.

Psalm 5:3 (Author’s paraphrase)

When we have…we become presumptuous.

It’s just human nature.

Religious or irreligious, we love imagining ourselves in control: Thanks, I’ll take it from here.

Thanks?! That’s no thanks.

Bart Simpson said grace this way: “Dear God, we paid for all this stuff, so, thanks for nothing.”

Theologian J.I. Packer, in a wiser state of mind, sets us straight when he says, “It’s the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God [that] yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal.” Gratitude is vacuous platitudes if it’s not rooted in and humbly directed toward the Giver.

I love the way the psalmist, here, begins the day. [re-read Psalm 5:3]

Saying grace is a reverent and intimate pause;

empty-handed children in company of an open-handed Father.

We do not presume to come to…your table, O merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness,
but in your abundant and great mercies.*

 As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”**

Prayer:

One of our family’s favourite graces:

[repeat or sing to the old tune of O for a thousand tongues]

The lions’ young may hungry be

And they may lack their food

But they that wait upon the Lord

Shall not lack any good.         (Psalm 34:10)

*Anglican Prayer Book

** CS Lewis, “Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.”