Fill up your Plate, Food is to Eat, not to Look At
Ed, my old neighbor from Saskatchewan, phoned last night when I was watching MasterChef Canada. It is a program; Ed has little interest in watching. He claimed that eating plain, ordinary food is good enough for anyone. “Why! make a big deal about how attractive the food looks on a plate?” Ed demanded. “Let me help myself and fill up my plate with the food I like best.” When he heard that they were cooking with cocktails to inspire two dishes on last night’s program, he called it, “Stupid.†His pressure test would have been to have the home cooks drink several cocktails, and then see which one could put out a decent meal after a few drinks.
Ed, decided that since I worked at A&W a few years ago, and that I do cook at home some, that I was planning to try out for the show. He knew the prize was $100,000 for the winner, so he was all for me auditioning for MasterChef Canada. I tried to persuade my old neighbor that the home cooks on the show are much better at making all types meals than myself. I told Ed that I excel at eating rather than cooking. He said that it was evident from my weight.
Isn’t it interesting that many of us can be so critical of our daily food like it is the same old gruel? How good would it be for me if when I wanted to snack there wasn’t a crust or crumb to be found? For many of us, the fridge is not empty, and we are anxious to keep eating our favorite, glorious food. Sadly, too many in the world die of starvation every day while people like myself eat more than enough. Food has great power and is often magical, wonderful, marvelous, beautiful and glorious to both the hungry and the well fed. That does not mean we never grumble about our food and take it for granted.
As Christians, we often forget that the word of God is food for our souls. It is a great blessing to have an abundance of food to eat for the health of our bodies. In the foods we consume, there is a supply of nutrients to sustain our bodies in good health and energy. Too little food and we will suffer from starvation, too much food and we become overweight and unhealthy. God calls us to be wise, to mature in our use of food and the use of his word. Being content is a problem for us as we so easily slide between too little appetite for the word of God and too much love for our favorite foods.
In the Bible, Jesus went up a mountainside, and a great crowd followed him. Although there were only five small barley loaves and two fish, Jesus, took them and gave thanks and had them distributed to the crowd of five thousand people to eat. They all had enough to eat, and there were twelve baskets of leftovers. The crowd then eagerly followed Jesus because he had fed them. They wanted Jesus to keep filling their stomachs. Jesus wanted instead to give them life through his word.
