#food #dinner #table #connection #blessing #joy
“Sharing a table is 1 of the most uniquely human things we do as no other creature consumes its food at a table, and sharing tables with other people reminds us that there is more to food than fuel. We do not eat only for sustenance“– Paul Ebeling
Tables are 1 of the most important places of human connection. We are often most fully alive to life when sharing a meal around a table. New Testament scholar NT Wright captured something of this sentiment when he wrote, “When Jesus himself wanted to explain to his disciples what his forthcoming death was all about, he didn’t give them a theory, he gave them a meal.”
Food is my love language.
The experts who write about such things suggest that each of us has 1 or 2 primary means by which we communicate and receive love. Those same experts do not typically include food on their lists of love languages, but few things bring me more pleasure than working in the kitchen to prepare a meal for people I care about. Doing so is one of the Key ways I show people that I love them.
In her book Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, theologian Christine Pohl has observed, “A shared meal is the activity most closely tied to the reality of God’s kingdom, just as it is the most basic expression of hospitality.” As we wait for the world to come and seek to navigate the complexity of the world that is, our lives will be nurtured and sustained with Real food as we recover the spiritual discipline of table fellowship.
Eat healthy, Be healthy, Live lively
