Can Savoring Food Be An Act of Worship?

by Becky Wilson December 2, 2015

I sure hope so! Let's work through this together and see if you agree.

My favorite definition of savor is "to give oneself to the enjoyment of." I love that. A lot.

But are we really supposed to do that? Give ourselves to the enjoyment of food? Well… I think yes, but before you get mad and label me a glutton or hedonist, let me explain. By no means am I suggesting that we are to worship the food itself, nor to over-indulge in food or obsess about it. The food itself deserves none of those forms or levels of attention.

But now let's consider the Creator of food. Why do you suppose He gave us such a gorgeously diverse menu to choose from when we feed ourselves? Couldn't He have fed us simple manna every day? Or maybe even more boring, couldn't He have designed our bodies to be fueled by simply swallowing a super-mega vitamin daily? I'll answer that. Yep. He most definitely could have. He's God. He can do whatever He wants. Which means…

He must have wanted us to have a delightful sensory adventure every time we eat. Why else would He create so many colors and textures and smells and flavors? Consider the boundless variety of sensory experiences available to us through food. The colors we see, the aromas we smell, the textures we feel, the sizzles we hear, and OH the flavors we taste!

Why would He do that? I think there are many reasons we could talk about which would all be true, but for the sake of this brief discussion, let's focus on this– He loves His children. (That's us.) He delights in our enjoyment of His gifts to us. Any and all of His gifts, including food. So can we worship (offer adoring reverence or regard to) God when we bite into a perfectly ripe, lusciously fragrant, sweet and juicy strawberry, remembering who created it for our enjoyment? Or when we smell and taste that first sip of coffee in the morning? What about when we hear bacon sizzling in a pan on that rare Saturday morning we have nothing on our calendar? Yes, I think we can. But more than that, I think we should

Originally published at SassyFeast.com