God Bless the Work of Our Hands!

"Jesus showed us the dignity of labor. He was known as the carpenter's son, and he willingly worked with the tools of his trade. Through the labor of our hands, we bring God's blessing upon ourselves and others. Let us pray for all who will work here and for those who will share the fruit of their labor." (Book of Blessings, For Place of Work)

This morning I had the pleasure of accepting an invitation from a local restaurant to come and offer a blessing on their new establishment.  It was a first for me as Deacon, and as usual, it offered yet another example of the humble sharing of the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.

The management gathered the opening crew in the center of the restaurant, and we simply prayed for God's blessing to shower down upon those who work each day to spread a little more of His joy.  We read from the Book of Ephesians, and embraced the invitation from St. Paul to work for the glory of God:  

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."  (Ephesians 3: 14-21)  

And then we walked the place from top to bottom, sprinkling every corner and counter top; from the store room to the register; and from the kitchen to the break room.

This was certainly a special opportunity to celebrate the real work of God's amazing people!  One memorable moment, however, will stay etched within my heart, and in this blog post.  As we walked through the kitchen, the radio was playing "Ordinary People" by John Legend.  While the song is not about working at the Golden Corral, it does offer a poignant opportunity to reflect on who it is that has been graced with the opportunity to work and share the fruits of their labor, for as the refrain of the song shares, "We're just ordinary people, we don't know which way to go.  'Cuz we're just ordinary people, maybe we should just take it slow."  Famous for my stretches, I will simply add that God's most important graces come through the hands and in the work of his people, making that which seems ordinary truly extraordinary!

After all was blessed, two of those amazing people came to ask for an individual blessing.  One was the manager who just wanted her crew to know that the Spirit of peace was truly upon them, and the other was young man (who was very tall) who just wanted to share with me (with tears of joy in his eyes), that he was thankful because he had just made a decision in his life, and it seemed to him to be "a very good one!"  He did not elaborate or explain.  He just wanted "to share prayer."  

This was a great morning, and great way to start the month of May!

On a personal note: In the picture above I am wearing my Dad's old jacket.  God rest his soul, "Mr. Ed" ran a few restaurants in his day.  Dad was proud of many a great crews in his day, and was equally joyous to join us in prayer, smiling down upon those getting ready to welcome us all to the table!  "Mr. Ed", pray for us!