Considering grace at Thanksgiving

Skye Pournazari
Pastor Kim Mitchell First United Methodist Church

There are some things that cause me to ponder. Like certain words and phrases and how they originate and morph. This week of Thanksgiving I have been pondering the question of why we call the prayer before a meal grace? As a pastor I know the answer in part, but questions like this cause me to get down deep into the rabbit hole, reaching to Google to help satisfy my curiosity.

For me to be satisfied in the quest, I began with defining that word GRACE. The English dictionary first defines grace as elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion or action. I love the visual this definition offers. We might see grace in this definition as an elegant ice skater flawlessly etching a figure eight in the ice, or a stoic eagle soaring high above the trees in the cloudless sky. That is grace by form, manner or action. The second definition of grace offered is mercy, clemency or pardon. This definition is indicative of God’s hand upon us and the relationship between grace and forgiveness.

So, this takes me back to wondering, why do we call the prayer before a meal grace?

We might consider the Hebrew word for grace, “chen.” According to 119Ministries.org, grace is composed of the Hebrew letters chet (symbolized by a fence, meaning private or to separate from outside; like an encampment) and noon (symbolized by a seed of life or later a fish, meaning activity, life, continue or heir). When this symbolism comes together the Hebrew word itself means “beauty or loveliness,” and literally in the paleo-Hebrew means “to separate from the outside” or “protect life.” The Paleo-Hebrew script is the writing system found in Canaanite inscriptions.

Maybe we can go back to Biblical Israel and Judah to begin to piece together a possible answer to my question of grace becoming the word we use to ask a blessing over our meals. In the Hebrew we find scriptures that express the mercy language: Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. (KJV, Psalm 6:2). Through this process we find that this Hebrew verb is paralleled with such ideas as healing, help, being lifted up, finding refuge, strength and salvation, literally rescue (see more about this https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/studies-words/meaning-of-grace-from-a-hebrew-perspective.htm).

So as I begin to climb out of my rabbit hole and piece together a possible answer to my pondering question: Paleo-Hebrew paints a picture of grace as an encampment of life, a place of security for the continuation of life. I could be wrong about this, but I think it is worth considering, especially when we know grace as beauty and loveliness, to be set aside and held safe, if only for a moment, like the moments we find as family gathered around the dinner table during the holidays. Doing it throughout the holiday season, Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, is ample time to make offering grace a holy habit.

Saying grace before a meal is the opportunity to offer a blessing to God for the sustenance provided. It is to say to God we are taking the moment to acknowledge the blessings of beauty and loveliness as he draws us together to the table, acknowledging God is right there with us. Are you setting a place for God at your table? In what ways will you offer grace? In what ways might you extend grace, body, mind, and spirit? May these questions be ones that we all are willing to ponder in the rabbit hole. The Thanksgiving meal can become for a family an opportunity to camp out with generations gathered in a sacred space to say thank you, Lord, for the bounty and the beauty that surrounds us.