The World is More Delicious Than it Needs To Be

The world is more delicious than it needs to be. We have a super- abundance of divine goodness and generosity. God went over the top. We don’t need the variety we enjoy, but he gave it to us out of sheer exuberant joy and grace. God’s creative joy wasn’t only for the beginning of creation, leaving us “eating leftovers.” God continues to sustain creation out of joy. “The bloom of yeast lies upon the grape skins year after year because He likes it; C6H12O6=2C2H5OH+2CO2 is a dependable process because, every September, He says, That was nice; do it again.” This means the quality of our food should matter to us. We’re to treat food as a gift, not merely as fuel. We’re to treat creation as a responsibility entrusted to our care by God to be used for his glory. We should take an interest in where our food comes from: the ingredients in the meal, the care of the livestock, the conditions of the workers, the treatment of the producers. 

In his book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser describes animals who never see the sun, and who are fattened on grain, pumped with steroids, and slaughtered in factories by workers paid one-third less than forty years ago and receiving minimal benefits.  It doesn’t have to be like this. Schlosser commends the West Coast burger chain In-N-Out, where the workers are well-paid, with full health benefits, and where food is prepared on the premises from fresh ingredients. Esther and Harry Snyder started the restaurant the same year that McDonald’s was started. When their son, Will, a Christian, took over the business, he discreetly introduced Bible references to their packaging. 

The best thing you can do for your health is to eat less processed food, which is full of added sugar, salt, and fat—none of which is good for us in large quantities. “When my generation of women walked away from the kitchen,” Barbara Kingsolver says, “we were escorted down that path by a profiteering industry that knew a tired, vulnerable marketing target when they saw it. ‘Hey, ladies,’ it said to us, ‘go ahead, get liberated. We’ll take care of dinner.’ They threw open the door and we walked into a nutritional crisis and genuinely toxic food supply.” Many of us have structured our busy lives around the availability of processed food, so we may need to change our lifestyles as well as our shopping baskets if we want to enjoy good food in good company. Food is not meant to be “fast.”

- Tim Chester, A Meal With Jesus, p. 68, 69