Five Days of Sensing God: A 5-Day Reading Plan by Mandy SmithНамуна

Day Three: Knowing God through Our Sense of Taste

Scripture: Psalm 34:8

I understand that there are cultural, historical, and theological factors behind the Christian tendency towards asceticism—denying ourselves worldly pleasures for the sake of finding and pleasing God. But there are also many scriptural stories which remind us that God himself is the one who not only created physical pleasures but also made the bodies and senses we use to enjoy them. God himself delights in His creation (calling it “good” over and over as he creates) and wants us to discover him as we delight in it.

Food is one of the simplest pleasures of life. And it makes me smile to read stories of God blessing people through food. And in many of these stories, he doesn’t just provide food for sustenance but for enjoyment.

In Exodus 31, when the Israelites complain about missing the food they had in Egypt, God answers by providing meat every twilight and bread every morning. So quail appeared every evening and every morning a dew appeared on the ground which evaporated to reveal flakes of something they’d never seen before but which tasted like wafers made with honey.

And in John 2 we read the story of Jesus’ first miracle, turning water to wine. Jesus could have made mediocre wine. But instead, he allows the wedding guests to savor something that really got their attention and added new layers of flavor to their celebrations. 

Our God is not a functionary, just managing the universe efficiently. Our God is alive and vibrant and using every part of creation to draw us into his delight. Psalm 34:8 invites us to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” reminding us that goodness is God’s own flavor. This word for “good” is the same word God used over and over in his work of creating pineapples and porcupines and palm trees. He is Good and all he makes is Good and the more we experience the Goodness of this creation, the more we experience God’s goodness.

Respond: 

At least three times a day (most of us) experience remarkable flavors. We may be accustomed to them so don’t pay attention or we may be multi-tasking so just shovel in our food without really tasting it. But even the most ordinary of foods—coffee, cheese, apples—deserve to be savored.

Choose a small flavor experience, not a whole meal, just a slice of orange or a piece of chocolate. Just let it sit in your mouth. Your saliva and your taste buds know what to do with it. It triggers things in your brain. Before it even enters your stomach to be digested in the more practical business of fueling and nourishing your body, the food is waking up something in you. Give your attention to it and receive whatever it wants to impart. If gratitude or worship flows, let it. And if it doesn’t, that’s fine too.

As you eat your next meal, consider all the ingredients, how they were invented and created by God, how they were tended and harvested by humans all over the world, how they were transported to you and shaped into something new and served to you with love. How can food be a reminder of our connection to creation, to God and to one another?