Food. Simply delicious. Ya.....let's start with food.
Our bodies will not survive without food. We need nutrients to survive. But we are not hung out to dry. We HAVE food. Apples, oranges, lettuce, yogurt, milk, chicken, steak, pasta, bread, fish, shrimp, bananas, peanut butter, coffee, pies, lobster, I must stop otherwise I'll be heading upstairs again. That is the first miracle. We have the exact same nutrients on this earth that our body needs. Our body needs 4 food groups to function properly, our good friends Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod remind us, and our world is perfectly set up to provide us with all four. Simply amazing.
But it doesn't stop there. We have taste buds! Taste buds!!! Bumps on my tongue that allow me to ENJOY these things. Saliva to mix in the juices. Teeth to break it down! Yikes! We begin to really, actually enjoy it - to take pleasure in it. Mix in spices, flavors, ingredients, ovens, BBQs, marinades, sauces and you have a whole array of possibilities to feed yourself with. And we all are different, unique. Created differently. We all enjoy different tastes, different foods. But there is something each one of us enjoy and love. Something that all we can do is just close our eyes and well......mmmm. I can't explain it - you have to taste it to understand. Then our tastes we have are so vast, and so diverse it would take a lifetime to taste them all. What a gift it is! Anyone who has eaten at the Keg or Lauren Miller's can attest to the beauty and creativity of the art of flavour (and if you haven't - you should!). It's more than just a meal.
I'm sure God could have done it another way. We could have taken pills everyday. Our bodies could have been self-sustainable or something. We could have eaten one meal a month or something. Or food could have been like taking needles - painful, irritable and disgusting - like eating tar. But no, we get the opportunity, the gift, the joy of stuffing ourselves with an array of exquisite tastes everyday - three times a day. Wow.
Then relationship enters the picture. Food brings us together. There is a reason for the 5 course meal. Why do you think Jesus had a last supper with his friends and reminds us to do the same. There is something about sitting down with a group of people, spending time with each other, and just enjoying an evening of great food and drinks together. It's one of the greatest gifts and joys of life. To eat, drink and be merry. You will often find joy, fulfillment, happiness and contentment around a dinner table. We get the opportunity to come together and take a break from "life" as we know it and really enjoy real "life" around the table. 3 times. Everyday.
I think it hurts us, when we begin to let things steal away such an awesome gift. Things like fast food are not only unhealthy for their calories. TV dinners. Meal replacements. All are missing the point. They are just sustaining us. We are too busy. Just getting it over with. We become too busy to even eat. During harvest, my favorite part of the day is supper. My mother brings out this fantastic, huge, hot meal out to us. I have cold milk, 4 vegetables (you should have tasted the corn last meal), a delicious cut of meat, dessert (although I never eat it, she always brings it), and of course tea. Yes I realize I am spoiled...lol....I love you Mom. But there is nothing more beautiful than sitting in the wide-open field, with fresh air, open skies, the sun setting through the dust, and eating a meal with my family. That is life. It sure beats a Big Mac from drive-thru.
I think God in his foresight, in his wisdom, beauty and creativity - created us this way. Food is and was always intended to be a great blessing for us. First, he places us on a world that gives us an unfathomable variety of food to sustain us all, then he gives us taste buds to thoroughly enjoy it and actually take pleasure in it, and lastly, he knows, when done right, meals will ultimately pull us all together. And as it pulls us all together, it pulls us closer to him. Being relational beings we feel most at home with other people - fully alive with each other. Around the table is the perfect place. The relational aspect of our characters is ignited. We can begin to understand the relational groan he has for us from his own heart. He said at the last supper - when you do this, remember me. It starts to make sense. As we realize that we are at home around a table, together, eating, drinking, talking, laughing, enjoying each other, that he is there amongst us. May we see, enjoy and celebrate him in our lives, especially around the table, and may we never forget the one who prepared it all.
Food eh......who knew. Great idea.
My thoughts, not yours.
Ned
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