Food for Thought Food, as God intended it to be, is a symbol of love and comfort, celebration and sacrifice, grace and gift. Most of all, it is a symbol of nourishment and life.” Emily Stimpson “Eating Light” Food plays an enormous role in our culture. Just consider the number and the size of the grocery stores in the Flower Mound area. Then start counting restaurants. Magazine racks and whole sections of bookstores are devoted to literature about eating and dieting. Doctors worry about obesity rates and eating disorders. Is chocolate healthy or harmful? Even beyond health, there are ethical considerations. In order to avoid killing animals, some embrace a vegetarian or even a vegan diet. Motivated by a desire to avoid killing of any kind, “fruititarians” eat only fruit, nuts, and seeds that have fallen naturally from the plant. The New York Times recently published an article by Michael Marder reporting on plant responsiveness entitled, “If Peas Can Talk, Should We Eat Them?” Food plays an enormous role in Scripture as well. Disobedient eating was the cause of man’s fall. Eucharistic eating is necessary for man’s salvation. Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (John 6: 53, 55 ESV). When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper at church, we recognize the costliness of what we eat and we eat as a family. What if we viewed every one of our meals in this same way?
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