What is worship? Is it an action, feeling, or place? Worship is a word that we use in a lot of different ways. I will worship the Lord. It was good to see you in Worship today. I worship the ground you walk on. Worship is a word that we throw around a lot, but true worship is anything you do to glorify God.
We get caught up a lot with the meaning of worship. For a long time, to me, worship meant music. I loved to sing and praise God with my voice, so why wouldn’t everyone else? So when a friend of mine told me that he couldn’t connect with music in church to feel like he was praising God I thought he was just a lost soul. But it turns out that music is not a way of worship for everyone and he finds ways to worship God elsewhere.
Our College Bible Study has been learning about Judaism and Jewish holidays through our current study “Feast.” Throughout each of these different celebrations we have seen one particular common thread: Worship.
These days sitting around the table to eat a meal with our family has become a scarce practice usually reserved for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. In the practicing Jewish faith family meals are made into a sacred time to worship the Lord.
Each meal for the Sabbath and other special times during the year are carefully prepared. During the meal certain prayers are said between each course and traditional songs are sung. This is done during the meal to thank God for the physical and spiritual nourishments he has blessed them with.
Who knew that you could worship God by eating? Sounds good to me. Something as normal as a family meal in the Jewish faith has become a style of worship and a celebration of the blessings God has bestowed upon us.
Kaitlin McMichael
photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/hannah8ball
