What is in a meal?

What is in a meal is more than just the dishes offered or the ingredients.  It is more than gluten, vegan or low carbs.  What is really important about a meal is the interaction.   I am writing this during the lunch rush at a popular deli. Almost every table has a few people engaged in conversation.  One table has a bunch of foreign nationals who are here attending school.  It is fun to see them chatting in their mother tongue.  It must feel great to have a break from immersion in a foriegn language and hear and speak your home language. At another table a handsome young man and a pretty young lady are not flirting, but the male displays his plumage while the female is pretending not to notice or be impressed.  I can’t really tell if she is impressed or not, neither can the male and I’m not sure if she knows.  There is another table nearby where two tech sorts are pouring over the screen of a laptop while animatedly discussing some point that would be lost on everyone except other tech sorts.  There is a large table in the corner where a group of young soldiers laugh, talk and render to each other good natured harassment.  A wife has just joined her husband, they are young, in love and thrilled with the moment away from work, kids, and other concerns.  They are having a sort of mini-vacation in the middle of the week. There is the young professional that just caught herself sort of dancing from the waist up to the catchy tune on the radio, to the amusement of her tablemates.  

What do they all have in common?  In one way or another and to different degrees, they are all building memories.  Who knows the afterword of the stories.  Maybe the flirting couple will get married and some day confess, “Remember the lunch at….”  The lonely foreign nationals may return home and always remember the oasis of home they shared over a meal.  The tech guys may build the next great O.S.  

Every meal is more than the food.  It is the connection that we make with each other.  It is the connection of laughter and tears, of stories and jokes, it is the holding of babies not your own, and getting a break from your kids.  The power of a shared meal is vital to the life and well-being of a family, a community, or a church.

This Sunday we will have the opportunity to build those kinds of relationships and bonds at church.  Every 5th Sunday of the month is our time to share a meal and in the process share life.  We are far from the ideal church, but every shared meal moves us a little closer in that direction.  Please join us Sunday, bring a dish to share and most of all, bring a heart to open to others and be filled with the grace of God’s people.