Proverbs 22:9 The generous will themselves be blessed,
for they share their food with the poor.
The last two readings for this week have focused on greed, storing up treasures on earth and a giving spirit. For me this verse from Proverbs 22 provides a wonderful picture of Christian giving. "Share their food". In ancient Middle Eastern cultures, meal times were not just a time to eat. Meals were a time for fellowship and sharing. It was as much as about the interaction as the nutrition. In our society, television, drive-thrus and crowded schedules have turned the American dinner into 10-minute shovel fests. Leisure, love and laughter are strangers to most American tables.
Sharing of food in years past meant not only food, but fellowship. A person got to know more about someone by breaking bread. Discussions were had. Ideas exchanged. Relationships built.
The "poor" referred to in Proverbs 22:9 might not be just the materially poor. Do you have a neighbor who is in poor health? Take a casserole over with a card of encouragement. Is a friend in the middle of a rough patch in a marriage? Find a time for a meal to open the door for a needful conversation. Those around you may have material possessions but be mired in emotional, relational or spiritual poverty.
Sharing food through by giving to a food drive or donating to a food pantry is needed in today's America. So many people would go hungry without such resources, but one-on-one food sharing opens the door for Christ-conversations that might fill the soul and not just the stomach.
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