Tasting Graceনমুনা

An Invitation into Grace

Food is pure and glorious, and it can connect us to our Creator. But we’re human and flawed, and we can use God’s gift all wrong. We can turn food into an idol and seek comfort that only God is meant to provide. The result can be mindless eating, gluttony, or entitled participation in a violent food system.

Anytime we praise the creation more than its Creator, we are worshipping the wrong thing, even if that thing is good. Remember that God created a food system that tells us with each bite how dependent we are on him. When we separate ourselves from the origins of our food, our ignorance invites abusing the holy aspect of God’s gifts. So much of this ignorance is chosen; we place convenience, budget, and saving time higher on the totem pole, and we quietly push honoring God further down. We don’t have to become farmers to honor God’s food system, but most of us could stand to learn a bit more about the source of what we eat and drink.

Food is a tempting and delicious place for us to give undue power, which is part of why so many of us struggle in our relationships with it. It’s not a coincidence that food was central to the humans’ first act of obedience and their first act of disobedience. Satan sweet-talked Adam and Eve into eating from the one forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, and later Satan even tried to tempt Jesus to turn stones into food when he hadn’t eaten in forty days. (Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus resisted.) When we turn to food to fill our souls and soothe them, we are replacing God with it. 

Yet we have such hope! God’s grace is bigger than any mess we bring on ourselves. If you’ve ever worried that God might give up because you’ve just done too much to disappoint him, hear this: Our salvation is won-and-done by Jesus. How we act isn’t how we earn his grace. How we live is our response to his grace, our thank-you letter to God. When we fully understand the magnitude of God’s grace, then gratitude and obedience just make sense.

Simply expressing gratitude for each meal and each bite of food can remind us of who we are in God’s eyes. Try eating a meal very slowly, praying before each bite.