It's All Good

Today, for lunch, I was treated to chicken vermicelli, and it was delicious!

To a lot of Christians this statement has very little weight when it comes to our understanding of God--but it really is important.

Why?  It's important because it helps us to see how God is involved in the everyday and most of the time we don't even give Him a second glance.

Think about it:  why does it matter that we have tastebuds in order to savour the exquisite flavors found in chicken vermicelli?  After all, this has little to nothing to say about our future life as a saved child of God right?

The problem arises when we read things like this in 1 Timothy 4:3-5 where Paul is talking about people who thought they knew God but were deceived by evil spirits that taught them things that weren't true.
This is what Paul writes here:  "They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.  For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

The first thing to wrestle with here is the fact that everything that God created is good.  I suspect that we spend a good portion of our time as Christians trying to figure out why things are not good, like sin, which is fine except when in our pursuit of truth we end up condemning things that God values.

I think once we begin to get our heads wrapped around this fact that we begin to see our world differently.  It may be that we will begin to have happier, more thankful hearts as we experience our world with new eyes.  In fact, that's what Paul alludes to when he says that 'nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving."  So listen to that:  if we view creation as 'bad' and God says it is 'good' then what is really happening is that is we are not living with thankful hearts toward God for what He has given to us.  In our attempts to value what we call the really 'spiritual' things (eternal life etc), we may have fallen into the trap of not valuing what God clearly says is good!

So maybe it's time to let the Bible speak to us again, to let God speak to us again.  And here is what He is telling us today:  "I have taken the time and care to prepare all these gifts for you and one of the reasons is because I wanted to give you some tools through which you can enjoy Me.  So be thankful and you will be blessed!"

I think that's why my chicken vermicelli is so important--because it makes my tastebuds sing and in so doing makes my heart glad for my Father who gives us such wonderful gifts!

Hope your meals today taste especially wonderful!

BT