In 1994 the FDA affixed its first “Nutrition Facts” panel to American food containers. You know, those little charts on our food packages, showing the nutritional content and percentages of each official serving size. The largest number in these charts is calories, with a font several sizes bigger than all the others. But what are calories? Well, simply put, they are a measurement of energy, how much energy that food supplies. Why put these numbers on our bags and boxes? To help us choose wisely what we put into our bodies. But it’s interesting to note that in 1986 1 in 200 US adults were considered morbidly obese; by 2004, that number was up to 1 in 50, and as of 2017 it was 1 in 5. Apparently, these caloric facts aren’t helping us much. Why is this? I’m convinced it’s because we fail to recognize food as one of the greatest witnesses to our God, and therefore, don’t remember Him in our eating. Permit me to explain.
Few things engage the senses like food. We hear it sizzle, boil, and bubble as we’re cooking it and smell the warm and wild aromas wafting through the air. We feel the creamy or course texture in our mouth and see the seemingly endless array of colors – from vibrant reds to luscious greens. And of course, we taste the lavish variety of flavors, from buttery breads and sweet sugars to spicy sauces. No sense is left out of the experience. Have you ever known the devastation of having your sense of taste and smell withheld by some stuffy nose or virus? Life is barely worth the living at such times! Who cares that we are kept alive by swallowing the substance. Without its tastes and smells, we hardly care for all its other benefits. And none of these are quantified on those little labels! No, food is much more than energy. It is delightful, delicious, and pleasurable. Food has character, personality. We call certain foods “comfort food” for their soothing, almost friendly way they have of calming us down and bringing a kind of peace. Food doesn’t just keep us alive, it plays a crucial role in the kind of life we have.
If our Creator had intended food to be no more than energy, fuel, He certainly could have simplified the delivery system. He could have designed little gray, tasteless pellets to grow on bushes outside our homes in every country. These would pack the full supply of nutritional value needed for each day. You would simply wake up, pluck one, pop it in your mouth, and go about your day. As such, there would be nothing like what we call “food” today, just energy packets, numbly consumed for sustenance. But this is precisely what these Nutritional Facts labels attempt to reduce our foods to already? Where is the number on the label that calculates how yummy the offering is, or how delightful the texture? Where is the number that indicates how well this nourishment helps us glorify our God, or even references His existence? No, they are little more than battery labels, telling us how strong the charge is, complete with expiration dates. They don’t rate the wonder of the food, nor point out what amazing testifiers they are to our good and gracious God.
When I was growing up – predominately in the Bible-Belt – we were taught to not even touch our food before saying “grace.” For our family, this was a monotone recitation of “God is good, God is great, and we thank Him for this food, Amen!” The prayer seemed perfunctory then, but looking back now, it seems like a holy residue of a godlier time, a vestige of a day when we were actually thankful for our food and recognized where it came from. Food made us happy then, as it still does today, only now the happiness seems to terminate in itself, with no thought of any deeper purpose. That prayer was tacit resistance to the continuous progressive march to eradicate God from all parts of our life. These Nutrition Facts labels seem to me as little more than atheist accounting for the fuel required by the fleshy machines of our bodies. Is that too strong a judgment? I don’t think so, since I don’t think that the essence of food is fuel.
When Jesus turned the water at the wedding into wine, He didn’t simply redden the liquid; He made an exquisite mixture, finer than what had gone before and which had actually been pressed out of grapes. The master of the feast was thrilled with it and the hearts of all in attendance were gladdened. (John 2:10 & Ps. 104:15) When God sustained His people in the wilderness with bread from heaven, it wasn’t like tasteless packing peanuts strewn about the camp, but had a delightfully simple flavor, like bread baked with oil, and with a light honey sweetness and an appearance resembling the coriander seed. (Number 11:7, Ex. 16:31) The record of these descriptors indicates the importance of such attributes in food. God intends food to be pleasurable, not just sustaining. The comfort of food is meant to make us seek our comfort in the One who gave it to us. The delightfulness of food is to remind us of just how delightful our Creator is who designed it all that way. But as we’ve been groomed to not consider God in any area of our lives, so we’ve been taught to separate the gift from the Giver in things so wonderful as food. The caloric numbers on those labels don’t trim our intake because the comfort food was meant to point us to is only sought within the food itself and our souls are still left hungering. But the One who said “Oh taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” (Ps. 34:8) had designed food to be a teacher of what our God is like. The experience of watering mouths and satisfied bellies is meant to make us think, “Oh, I’m supposed to know my God like that?”
So think less about the numbers in each mouth full and let each bite remind you of your God “who opens His hands and satisfies the desire of every living thing.” (Ps. 145:16), and who says, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!” (Ps. 81:10) Feast, but let your feasting feed your faith!
