Praise: Part Three...the Lord's Table

From our perspective, “The God Who Sees” is invisible. But He understands our need to have something we can see and touch, so before Jesus gave His life for us, He gave us two very visible symbols that we can see, taste, touch, smell...depending on how crunchy the bread is, you can even hear it. We use those symbols at the Lord's Table to remember this event and to remember His sacrifice.

And He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." (Luke 22:19)

Notice this little phrase: in English, it's simply “gave thanks.” Jesus gave thanks. I looked up this phrase and I learned something fascinating. It's one word in the original Greek: eucharisteō (in Greek: Εὐχαριστέω)

It means “to give thanks.”

But when you look at this word, it contains its root word: charis, which means grace. When we give thanks, we are noticing...remembering...grace. Grace is a free and undeserved gift of God, and when we hold the juice or the bread, we have a visible touchable reminder of the sacrifice He made to give us the free gift of eternal life and a relationship with Him.

Now, if we look again at this word, charis--grace--there is a verb that came from this word, and it is chairo which means rejoicing, especially rejoicing for the redemption that God gave us through Jesus Christ.

I know that the Lord's Supper is usually a solemn time. And yes, it is a quiet moment of reflection, and it's something we take very seriously. But, when you are giving Him thanks for His gift of grace...how can you not be joyful? How can you keep from bubbling over with His exceeding joy? We are celebrating!

I love the way God chose to give us edible symbols. As humans we naturally celebrate everything with food, don't we? At the Lord's Table we use food to celebrate Him. To remember...to see with our spiritual vision The God Who Sees Us.

We give thanks--eucharisteo--
for His grace--charis--
and we rejoice--chairo.

Give thanks for grace, and rejoice today!

This is my post for Thought Provoking Thursday, which is hosted here.
I learned about these words in One Thousand Gifts, and researched them in my Bible dictionary and at blueletterbible.org.
One Thousand Gifts is a thought-provoking book that I will review on my blog one of these days.