day no. 16,203: we say grace for our sake, not the food's

1 Timothy 4:4–5

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

Food is made holy by the word of God and prayer. The word of God has declared all foods good. The Bible says so. In the beginning He provided all kinds of vegetable life for food. After the Fall, He provided animals for clothing and required animals for sacrifice. After the flood, He declared that the menu now included animals and Jesus during His earthly ministry opened up the menu to all that is edible.

Mark 7:18-19

And Jesus said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

So food is made holy by the Word of God. This has been declared prior to your plate. It has been served up before you sit down to table. The food has already been blessed by God before you add salt.

Given that, it is appropriate for us to bless it and those sitting around it by saying grace over it. The food is already blessed, but we add our agreement to it. We say a blessing not because without it the food would be tainted, but because without grateful hearts, we would be. We say grace before meals for our sake, not the meal's. The food would not ruin us, but it would be ruinous to receive such goodness without feeling and expressing gratitude for it.

So say grace over your food. Not because you have to, but because you get to. You get to eat. You have been given an expansive menu and every item on it has already been declared good by Someone who knows a little something about the subject. So enjoy. Count the blessings instead of the calories. Anytime you eat, you're eating food from holy foods. 

day no. 16,079: the Founder of the feast

"The dinner party is a true proclamation of the abundance of being -- a rebuke to the thrifty little idolatries by which we lose sight of the lavish hand that made us." -- Robert Farrar Capon

Preparing a feast prepares us. Feasts require sacrifice. It takes effort and generosity to lavish a table with linens, fat, and sweet. But feasting reminds us of the abundance of our Father who made us. He is no skinflint. There is no stinginess in Him.

"It was largesse that made us all; we were not created to fast forever." -- Robert Farrar Capon

God set a table for us because He wanted to. He wasn't obligated to have us over. He didn't need the company. He invited us over because He wanted to and He prepares a feast for us that we might taste and see His goodness.

"Nourishment is necessary only for a while; what we shall need forever is taste."

-- Robert Farrar Capon

We need good food to keep us alive, but more importantly, we need it to keep us alive long enough to learn how to truly live. Food not only provides the fuel to keep going, but it provides more time to learn what's worth going on for. Nourishment is necessary for now because nourishment gives us enough time to develop taste.

Psalm 34:8

O taste and see that the Lord is good.

Food is grace, but taste is grace upon grace. It is good to be kept alive, but better to enjoy the life you're living. The meal is a gift, but the ability to appreciate it is an additional present.

Ecclesiastes 2:24

There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

day no. 15,689: our diets should not make us want to die

"Thou, Almighty Master,
didst create all things for Thy name's sake,
and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment,
that they might render thanks to Thee;
but didst bestow upon us spiritual food and drink and eternal life through Thy Son.
Before all things we give Thee thanks that Thou art powerful;
Thine is the glory for ever and ever."
-- The Didache, J.B. Lightfoot translation

Food and drink were meant to be enjoyed. God made food and drink. He designed their tastes. He gave men taste buds that could distinguish different flavors. Food is good and meant to be enjoyed. God also gave us bodies to steward. But if our diets end in us despising food, we are doing it wrong and something is out of proportion to its created intent. Our diets should not make us want to die. 

Romans 14:17

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost

God gave us minds to think with and hearts to thank with and all that passes through our mind, mouth, heart or soul can be received with gratitude because He is full of grace and withholds from us no good thing. By eating the fat and drinking the sweet, we train ourselves to agree with God that life is good and living an occasion for celebration.

1 Timothy 4:4-5
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

day no. 14,865: animals eat, men feast

“Animals feed themselves; men eat; but only wise men know the art of eating.”- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Paige sent me this quote via text the other day (6/13/19). It led me to think about God's command to Noah.

Genesis 9:3-6
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

Animals often kill their prey BY eating it. Men are prohibited from this activity. Men are not mere animals. They are not the latest and greatest permutation on the evolutionary conveyor belt. Man is made in the image of God. Man was not meant to merely eat, but to feast. To kill dinner on purpose. To take that dead animal and prepare it for a meal. Mankind was not meant merely to eat. Food is not simply fuel. It is an opportunity to feast, to partake of providence and fill a belly that is connected to a heart already full of, "Thank You!"