The Tie that Binds

Much of the day so far has been spent in the kitchen. It's Thanksgiving Day and as each year on this day, there's a big bird to prep; bread and cookies going in the oven (pie was done yesterday); there will be sides to prep; and of course we needed some breakfast and snacks to tide us over until everything's ready in the middle of the afternoon. And it's not just this way at Thanksgiving. Other holidays may not be centered around food quite like Thanksgiving, but food is still a key element of their celebration. And not just holidays. Fellowship dinners, having friends over, family meals, parties, open houses, receptions, showers. None of these work without food.

Why food? Is it because we are gluttons and an entirely too flabby society. Maybe partially, but I don't think that's it. Because the Pilgrims and Indians had a big meal together? Perhaps. But I think it goes deeper than that. Food is so important because God designed this great gift for us to enjoy. God could have made food to merely sustain us - bland, flavorless, colorless slop (think, The Matrix). If the only purpose of food was to meet our physical needs, that's all we would need. It's kind of like sex. If all it was for is procreation, God could have made it dull, pleasureless, and boring. But he didn't. He made it exhilarating. (Make sure you teach your kids this side of sex too...the good; not just warning them about the perversion of it.) And so with food. I don't have to tell you about the variety, textures, flavors. That's why you've been in the kitchen all morning. The goodness of food is an expression of the goodness of God! (Of course good food can be abused just like God's good gift of sex. I'm not advocating gluttony...)

So throughout God's revelation to us, what do we find? Food. It's everywhere. A key element in the festivals of Israel was food. Sometime do a word study on "feast" in your Bible. Passover was accompanied by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Israel also celebrated the Feast of First Fruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets,  and Feast of Booths. The Promised Land was described as flowing with milk and honey. Jesus gathered with disciples, friends, and sinners around food. In the new covenant, there's the Lord's Supper. Eternity is pictured as a wedding feast. Isaiah 25:6 "On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined." (ESV)

How fitting, then, is a day of feasting for a day of thanksgiving?! Food really is a tie that binds us together as family and friends and children of the living God. Psalm 100:4-5 "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." (ESV) One of the ways we know he's good? Food. Enjoy yours today!