My Tastes In Food

Have you ever known a picky eater?  And by picky I do mean finicky.  I have.  Some peoples culinary standards simply cannot be met.  Other people are fastidious in their selections of food as well as its preparation.  Many people in America will cite health reasons as the primary driver behind their particular eating habits.  Some people go absolutely nuts counting calories, checking sugar content, evaluating ingredients on packages, and carefully questioning food preparation (was this dish grilled or fried?).  Some folks stick with what they know and are comfortable with, they are not willing to branch out into new areas and try new things.  Some people only eat according to religious guidelines and govern their eating through close religious standards.

The commercial world plays off of these eating peculiarities in advertising and marketing.  The Food Network has programming in 150 countries around the world and 24 hour programming in America, Great Britain, India, Asia, and Africa.  Japan has its Iron Chef, Julia Child’s was billed as The French Chef (even though she was American), while All Recipes will bring you cooking techniques from around the world.  And check out this organic food craze from World Cuisine.

Food.  It is a stable of our lives.  We need food to survive and yet at the same time we immensely enjoy good food.  For the Judeo Christian world food is an interesting thing.  Most Christians around the world do not stop and think about the very first commandment given by God to mankind.  Many hundreds of years (perhaps as long as two or three thousand years) before the Ten Commandments were given to Moses and the nation of Israel, a commandment was given to Adam and Eve (Note: the Wikipedia article erroneously and foolishly refers to Adam and Eve in conjunction with creation myths.  The same weak thinkers that unequivocally establish the story of Adam and Eve as mythical, will just as quickly point out that most mythical stories have some basis in fact.  Except for, apparently, Adam and Eve.  Although they may never quite establish either the basis or the fact in the other stories.  In reality, they believe what they want to believe without any basis in fact simply because it meets their world view.  The difference between them and the religious people of the world is they are not brave enough to admit it.  But I’m chasing rabbits here.)  in the Garden of Eden.  And that commandment was “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:” Genesis 2:16-17.  This is greatly interesting to me.  The very first commandment ever given is embodied in the words “thou shalt not eat“.  And the one thing God said could not be eaten was the fruit of a tree.

This must have been greatly perplexing to Adam and Eve.  After all, God had told them that he had placed every herb bearing seed and every tree that had fruit that yielded seed, on the Earth for them to eat.  Genesis 1:27-30.  And all of a sudden God is telling them ‘ What I really meant was you can eat of just about any tree in the Garden.  Just don’t eat of this one.  Because this one is kind of poison and if you eat of it, you will die’ (my paraphrase).  Talk about a setup.  The Garden of Eden must have been the equivalent of putting a child in a candy shop and telling them they may eat any of the candy in the entire shop, except for the chocolate bars on this one rack in the center of the store.  Unfortunately Eve’s taste in food was pretty open and she saw the fruit and thought it must be good.  Genesis 3:6.

And thus the very first commandment ever broken was eating food!  Have you ever considered why food is so important?  And why in the world would God structure the very first test mankind was ever to face around eating, and refraining from eating, food?  And here we are, six thousand years later, still wrapped around our culinary peculiarities.

I believe the answer is because God specifically designed us to be creatures of replenishment.  God designed us to be renewed in so many ways.  Both Spiritually, Emotionally, and Physically.  And eating is one of the primary ways we are renewed physically.  We are dependent upon food for survival.  And yet Jesus tells us to take no thought of what we are to eat.  Matthew 6:25.  Why?  Because our Father in Heaven knows we need these things and wants to be the supplier of them in our lives.  Matthew 6:32.

God knows, and God wants to supply the very needs of our lives.  And he wants us to keep coming back to him over and over and over again to have those needs fulfilled.

Choosey eaters turn me off to some extent.  Because if people display habits or traits in one area of their lives, you can pretty well bet that they exhibit those habits and traits in other areas of their lives.  If we are hard to please in our Physical lives, we are probably hard to please in our Spiritual lives as well.

God wants us to be renewed in all facets of our beings.  And that means being renewed Spiritually.  Constantly, and consistently, and through wondrous experiences he has designed specifically for us.  And just like eating, when we come to God’s table for Spiritual replenishment, we can get ourselves into trouble.

We can miss out by being picky and not experiencing all God has for us.  We can over indulge by being chocoholics and not eating our vegetables.  And we can end up unhealthy by not eating a well balanced meal.

So are you a picky eater?  Because I believe God wants us to be hungry and then filled, hungry and then filled, over and over again.  Each time enjoying a great meal that he has prepared just for us.  And if we are picky eaters, we might miss out on God’s specific treats for our lives.

As for myself, I’ll eat just about anything.