With Thanksgiving and the Christmas season fast approaching, my mind has been on all the great food that goes along with the season. As a young child, I was the beneficiary of all the great cooking and candy making done by my Mom, Mema, Grandma, and even people from church. These days I still look forward to eating my Mom's homemade peppermint patties or my Mema's legendary homemade rolls, but my mind also dwells on food because I'm now responsible for preparing meals and treats for my own family.
Another thing I think about is all the wonderful family celebrations centered around special meals that we had growing up. My mom always cooked a birthday dinner for each one of us. We would get to request whatever we wanted and she would make it. I never remember going to a restaurant or even ordering pizza for a birthday while growing up. I think my bother and sisters and I would have been offended if my mom would have suggested restaurant food instead of her delicious home cooking. We always spent Christmas with grandparents and Mema, Grandma, and Granny would cook amazing and meals (with contributions from Pam, Sherry, and my sometimes my Grandma's sisters).
Outside of the family aspect of meals for special celebrations, I can also remember food cooked by people from our church when my mom was in the hospital and meals that people from church brought to me when Maddy was born and when Maddy had her surgery. My mom being in the hospital for so long and her long recovery time are what really made it necessary for me to learn to cook on my own. I can also remember meals shared with friends when just getting together to socialize.
Even with all of these events in the back of my mind, I haven't really realized the spiritual significance and contribution of those who put the food on the table. Often, cooking can seem like a drudgery. It has to be done day in and day out, it meets a physical need, it is necessary for survival. All of these things make cooking seem an unimportant, and at times a hateful, task. However, recently I have begun to realize the spiritual significance of cooking.
Cooking a meal allows a person to use their spiritual gift of serving. Serving is listed right along with gifts like teaching, encouraging, giving, and leadership (see Romans 12:6-8). It seems that it is no less important to serve others in regards to physical needs than it is to teach or lead. Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper during the Passover. We don't know who prepared the passover feast for Jesus and his disciples, but someone had to do it to make this important moment for Jesus and the disciples possible. In Act, the Greek widows felt neglected by the church because the church was not including them in the daily distribution of food. I give all these examples to show that there is something about the act of preparing food for others that is important to allow spiritual connections and development to take place.
In today's world the importance of being around the table as family is recognized even by the secular world. Social workers who try to help families promote healthy lifestyles and nurture balanced, well-behaved children encourage families to come around the dinner table together at least one night a week. The dietician who sees Maddy constantly encourages me to include Maddy in the cooking process, to allow Maddy to serve herself at the dinner table, and for us to be together as a family during meals. If you have strong family relationships today, it is highly likely that your family spent time around the dinner table together. And in order to spend time around the dinner table, there had to be someone there preparing the meal to make that happen.
Preparing food is also a great way to minister to others. Homeless shelters serve meals to people out on the streets, many times churches house food banks or give out food baskets at Christmas time, friends provide meals for the sick, those who have new babies, and funerals. If you have ever been on the receiving end of a friend serving you with a meal when you are in one of these situations you know that the blessing goes far beyond just filling your stomach for the day.
Maybe many of you reading this have already come to this conclusion, but for me this has been a revolutionary thought and has totally changed the way I look at how important it is to use preparing food as a means of serving others and God. It has also given me a new appreciation for all the cooks in my life who have spent years and years quietly providing food and the opportunity for better relationships, fellowship, and spiritual growth.
Another thing I think about is all the wonderful family celebrations centered around special meals that we had growing up. My mom always cooked a birthday dinner for each one of us. We would get to request whatever we wanted and she would make it. I never remember going to a restaurant or even ordering pizza for a birthday while growing up. I think my bother and sisters and I would have been offended if my mom would have suggested restaurant food instead of her delicious home cooking. We always spent Christmas with grandparents and Mema, Grandma, and Granny would cook amazing and meals (with contributions from Pam, Sherry, and my sometimes my Grandma's sisters).
Outside of the family aspect of meals for special celebrations, I can also remember food cooked by people from our church when my mom was in the hospital and meals that people from church brought to me when Maddy was born and when Maddy had her surgery. My mom being in the hospital for so long and her long recovery time are what really made it necessary for me to learn to cook on my own. I can also remember meals shared with friends when just getting together to socialize.
Even with all of these events in the back of my mind, I haven't really realized the spiritual significance and contribution of those who put the food on the table. Often, cooking can seem like a drudgery. It has to be done day in and day out, it meets a physical need, it is necessary for survival. All of these things make cooking seem an unimportant, and at times a hateful, task. However, recently I have begun to realize the spiritual significance of cooking.
Cooking a meal allows a person to use their spiritual gift of serving. Serving is listed right along with gifts like teaching, encouraging, giving, and leadership (see Romans 12:6-8). It seems that it is no less important to serve others in regards to physical needs than it is to teach or lead. Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper during the Passover. We don't know who prepared the passover feast for Jesus and his disciples, but someone had to do it to make this important moment for Jesus and the disciples possible. In Act, the Greek widows felt neglected by the church because the church was not including them in the daily distribution of food. I give all these examples to show that there is something about the act of preparing food for others that is important to allow spiritual connections and development to take place.
In today's world the importance of being around the table as family is recognized even by the secular world. Social workers who try to help families promote healthy lifestyles and nurture balanced, well-behaved children encourage families to come around the dinner table together at least one night a week. The dietician who sees Maddy constantly encourages me to include Maddy in the cooking process, to allow Maddy to serve herself at the dinner table, and for us to be together as a family during meals. If you have strong family relationships today, it is highly likely that your family spent time around the dinner table together. And in order to spend time around the dinner table, there had to be someone there preparing the meal to make that happen.
Preparing food is also a great way to minister to others. Homeless shelters serve meals to people out on the streets, many times churches house food banks or give out food baskets at Christmas time, friends provide meals for the sick, those who have new babies, and funerals. If you have ever been on the receiving end of a friend serving you with a meal when you are in one of these situations you know that the blessing goes far beyond just filling your stomach for the day.
Maybe many of you reading this have already come to this conclusion, but for me this has been a revolutionary thought and has totally changed the way I look at how important it is to use preparing food as a means of serving others and God. It has also given me a new appreciation for all the cooks in my life who have spent years and years quietly providing food and the opportunity for better relationships, fellowship, and spiritual growth.
Comments
I do agree with what you are saying. I have a neighbor that does not understand why churches feed the families at funerals. He thinks it is silly and too much effort. "Feeding dead people" he calls it. Just doesn't get it.
Looking forward to all the good food and GOOD TIMES we have sharing meals. I have told everybody repeatedly, don't get me things for birthday or Christmas, let's just have a meal together. Do away with a lot of the gift exchanging.
Brittany
-brad