How much are we allowed to enjoy the good things of this world? Examine the role food plays in allowing us to celebrate God's goodness and provision in our lives.
Food has been a significant part of my life for as long as I can remember, which is a statement I think most of us can relate to. During my childhood, I spent a great deal of time with my grandmother who loved to bake and cook and serve her family delicious meals. My home growing up was the hub of gatherings with extended family and friends, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and large birthday parties, all centered around good food and festivity.
As an adult, I’ve lived in large, culinary cities like Seattle, Portland, New York City, and Washington DC. I have a vivid memory of walking through endless rows of beautiful produce at my first farmers’ market in Portland. Who knew there were so many different varieties of apples? The vibrant colors of the beets, Swiss chard, kale, and other root vegetables were enough to take my breath away. I remember my first bite of sushi in Seattle; my mouth watered as I realized my love for raw fish. I will never forget the experience of a twelve-course chef’s tasting menu in New York, a meal for which I saved for months to enjoy with friends. The precision, creativity, and explosion of flavor with each course, each one better than the last, was shocking to my senses and left me wanting more.
I’m blessed to have grown up in a Christian home, but because my parents both came to Christ after my sister and I were born, they struggled as new Christians navigating the things of this world and determining what was “ok” for their daughters to enjoy and pursue. Between media, travel, relationships, and hobbies that became more than hobbies, they struggled with allowing their daughters to be in “worldly” environments and often asked themselves, “How much are we allowed to enjoy what the world has to offer?” They worried at times that I would be too influenced and consumed by things that ultimately had no real spiritual value. But I remember during my chef days sitting around the dinner table with friends in New York City and thinking, “Wow, this food is amazing. It’s a gift from the Lord, and it’s something we all can enjoy together. That must be a good thing.”
Our lives are meant to be shared with others, to encourage each other, and to ultimately glorify the Lord. Is there any setting for doing that better than around a table filled with delicious and nourishing food?
As Christians, we believe in a God who created the world and all that is in it and called it “good.” He does not intend for us to avoid or ignore the undeniable beauty, sights, sounds, and smells that constantly surround us. Although we live in a fallen world, we were meant to live in a garden and to enjoy the good things that surround us. One of those things is food, and it is our duty to delight in it! So how do we engage with and respond to the gift of good food? God calls His own to enjoy, share, and give thanks for food as it ultimately points to the new heavens and the new earth.
Babette’s Feast is about a French refugee who comes to cook for a puritanical Norwegian community and serves them the most decadent feast of a lifetime. The members of this community are at a loss for knowing how to appropriately respond to such rich and pleasurable food. Do they give into the desires of the flesh and enjoy what they are eating or deny themselves any true luxuries? The author of this book, Karen Blixen, describes Babette’s talent: “This woman, this Chef, has the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair, a love affair that makes no distinction between the bodily appetite and the spiritual appetite.” Babette’s skills took food and transformed it into something that was undeniably delicious, God’s creation on display. Blixen also states, “The aim of all creative art is to symbolize eternal truth.” Babette was a culinary artist, and her abilities are a reminder to all Christians of what is true: God’s creation is a gift and is meant for our free and unapologetic enjoyment.
We are called to be faithful to the most common tasks in this life, as they point to God and His intent for His creation, His orderliness, and His grace in providing for our daily needs. Sitting down to share a meal with friends, Christian or not, is a way of celebrating God’s common grace to all people. But there is something uniquely special about sitting amongst fellow believers to break bread. Scripture is full of instances where Christ, His apostles, and His followers dined together: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). This community was committed to each other and was united by shared beliefs, shared possessions, and intimate time together. We, as members of our local churches, cherish the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and this points to the fellowship of all redeemed people gathered around the table of the King. Our lives are meant to be shared with others, to encourage each other, and to ultimately glorify the Lord. Is there any setting for doing that better than around a table filled with delicious and nourishing food?
Ecclesiastes addresses many of life’s most difficult questions. What is the meaning of life? What is the point to life’s toil if we all die? “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25). The honesty of this book is uplifting for Christians. We all have or will experience suffering in this life in some way or another, because God does not guarantee us a life of ease, comfort, and pleasure. In fact, we are to expect difficulty and hardship on this side of Heaven. Knowing this, God has given us good gifts to enjoy, not apart from Him or expecting lasting fulfillment in them, but because He loves His children and wants us to be able to acknowledge these gifts as coming from His gracious hand.
Food and drink are some of the most common yet significant gifts from the Lord named throughout Scripture. Robert Farrar Capon, author of The Supper of the Lamb, states, “We were given appetites, not to consume the world and forget it, but to taste its goodness and hunger to make it great.” Our feasting, despite our toil, points us toward the Creator’s goodness to us, gives us awareness of the world and its beauty, and this ultimately leads to hearts of thankfulness.
Revelation 21:2 beautifully describes what those who belong to Christ ultimately long for: “And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” As believers, we long for the promise of the new heavens and the new earth. That longing doesn’t mean we cannot enjoy the things of this earth. In fact, Capon explains how the opposite is true; our love for this earth, and specifically our love for its culinary treasures, will add to our eternal experience:
“It will be precisely because we loved Jerusalem enough to bear it in our bones that its textures will ascend when we rise; it will be because our eyes have relished the earth that the color of its countries will compel our hearts forever. The bread and the pastry, the cheeses, the wine, and the songs go into the Supper of the Lamb because we do: It is our love that brings the City home.”
In the Christian life of longing for the completion of our redemption and eternal home, God’s goodness in our lives on this earth only points us forward.
Mary McKenzie DeGroot is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in London. During culinary school, she honed her skills working in the restaurant industry in London and her hometown in Maryland. She served as chef de partie at New York City's iconic Union Square Café and was later offered the role of sous chef. Passionate about sharing her love for cooking, she enjoys hosting dinner parties with friends and special events for her church and extended community.
References
Blixen, Karen and Dinesen, Isak. Babette’s Feast. Vintage Books USA, 1988.
Capon, Robert Farrar. The Supper of the Lamb. Modern Library, 2002.
ESV Study Bible. Crossway, 2011.
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