“Saying Grace”

The scene is a young boy and his grandmother about to have lunch. They are in a rough place with a lot of rough men around them. The wall and window behind them, like the floor, is a little dirty and grimy. They are sharing the table, desiring only a small corner of it as they ask God to bless their meal. Maybe it is raining outside but regardless it’s a dark day, certainly several of the men are wearing coats. Grandma has an umbrella under her chair along with a knitting bag with needles sticking out of it, and a cheery hat with a button. The boy has taken off his coat and it has slipped down to where he is sitting on it – boys aren’t the best at hanging things up properly, after all. Grandma’s coat is draped over the back of her chair and off the floor, neat, tidy, and orderly as always.

At a closer look, one might take note that four of the men are clearly watching and at least one looks rather uncomfortable. A fifth man seems to be getting up to leave, perhaps finished with his meal and beating a hasty exit. Everything in the picture is drab – except the boy’s white shirt and grandma’s flowers in her hair, which just, by chance? suggests innocence and purity. Two of the men seem to be leaning in, maybe hoping to catch one more time a bit of nostalgia, the soft words that their own grandmothers once spoke with them, a reminder of less burdensome days gone by. Maybe, for a moment, their thoughts go from the current effort and struggles of the daily grind to higher things, a consideration of their mortality and the point of it all, where they are, how they got there, and where they are destined to end up.

How do the characters react to such an event?

-A light in the darkness? Matthew 5:14-16, Proverbs 4:18,  II Corinthians 4:6, John 1:6-8

-Are you judging me? (let’s leave that up to God) I Thessalonians 2:10, Psalms 96:13

-A reminder of home? II Corinthians 5:1-2, Philippians 3:20

– The simplicity of Godliness?  John 12:48, II Corinthians 11:3-4

– Peace that comes from within? II Thessalonians 3:16, Psalms 23:4

-Cleanliness and purity? Ezekiel 36:25, II Corinthians 7:1

-A renewed determination? John 12:24-26, I Corinthians 11:1

Maybe some just needed reminding of what they already knew…

-Randy