Tasting Graceنموونە

An Invitation into Authenticity

Food invites us all into authenticity. We were given food from the moment we were created, and our job is to show up, tend to the garden, and receive the gift in gratitude.

Like Adam and Eve, we let our sinful nature complicate things, and we want to hide behind fig leaves and wear whatever masks society tells us we need to do to be beautiful. Current food culture can feel like a mockery of the simple beauty of food. But every bite we take can bring us closer to God as we practice receiving instead of taking. Food reminds us all that we have nothing to hide from our Maker.

How wonderful that God chose to place food into my life’s dreams and purpose, but his invitation would have been as compelling, his grace just as transformative, had it been just me in a kitchen, cooking for my family. Perhaps we are our true selves around a dining room table more than any other spot in the home. 

Creating recipes and simple home cooking have become for me a kind of worship because me being me is my worship to God. I understand that someone may download my kale chip recipe only because it came up on a quick Google search. But my faithful worship, as far as I can tell, is praying over whatever I can create and then throwing my little pebble into the big lake of life. God will use those ever-widening circles however he sees fit.

It’s good news that God doesn’t value our personal preferences or dreams or comfort above his glory. He doesn’t promise us a comfortable, easy life where our hard work is rewarded the way we want. Instead, God invites us to enter into the freedom that comes with being who we are, then leaving the results of our work up to him.

What if we all tried to make someone we’ve never met feel loved and connected, in any small way, simply by making the world a better place by sharing our talents and gifts and by being who we really are? 

What lies about yourself do you need to reject? What is it that God has placed inside you that is unique and precious and how can you use those traits to bless others?