The Meal

The idea of "the meal" has been on my mind lately. This may be because I'm now a stay-at-home mom and am enjoying exercising my creative meal-planning muscles or because I have taken an interest in sustainable living, but I think it runs much deeper than that. I find that God tends to meet us where we are in ways that are immensely more deep and complicated than we can imagine. I could say that God meets me in the kitchen when I cook, which is true. I could say that God meets me in the grocery store when I shop for food, which is true. I could say that God meets me in the planning of my weekly meals, which is also true. I think, however, that where God meets me the most is in the consumption of the meal itself. Not that the pleasure of the food is so great that God must be in it, but rather that the experience of sharing a meal with my family is in and of itself a part of God's design for His people. On one level, the communal aspect of eating is very spiritual and I want to extend my table beyond myself and my family. On the other hand, though, I think the communal aspect of a meal is a greater metaphor for God's extension of grace to the entirety of humanity. I reflect on meals in the Bible and how in first-century Judaism, meals were shared amongst the Jews as a sign of their oneness with God and their being chosen. Meals were used to commemorate historical events and to recognize God's provision and fulfilled promise as given through the law. And yet, when Jesus sits with sinners and shares a meal, he is in essence extending that promise outside of the Jewish table and to the rest of humanity. The meals that Jesus shares in the New Testament are symbolic of Jesus' role as the extension of God's favor on the world. The picture of Jesus' meal-sharing is portrayed in the New Testament as a specific example of how we are to commune with the world around us. Our tables are not just for our own families and communities but are meant for the broken, misled, un-churched, un-polished, outsiders, uncomfortable and unwanted members of our own neighborhoods. In extending the invitation to share a meal, we are re-enacting God's extension of grace on us. "The Meal" is so much more than the provision of food for our bodies; it is an opportunity to be an extension of the provision of food for the soul.