Dessert first, grace last!

Details

Published on Friday, October 2, 2015

By Rev. Glenna Beauchamp

Rivers and Oak River United Churches

I once got the time for a wedding reception wrong. Thinking I had forgotten, they started supper and I arrived half an hour later; I felt terrible! Should I stay or just quietly leave? But the emcee for the evening graciously welcomed me and said, “Go ahead and ask the blessing. Now that we’ve eaten this wonderful meal, we feel more thankful!”

Many years later, I learned that the tradition of the Hebrews was to say grace at the end of a meal.

Deuteronomy 8:10 says, “You will eat, you will be satisfied and you will bless the Lord,” because after we’ve eaten, we forget what it feels like to be hungry. We may also forget how blessed we are to have enough to eat, and it is then, that we need to be reminded.

Grace at the end of the meal is a needed reminder. Sometimes we decide we should reverse the order of a meal and eat dessert first; when we do that, why not also say grace at the end?