With Thanksgiving 2024 fast approaching and President-Elect Trump’s nomination of RFK, Jr. as his candidate for HHS Secretary, food is getting even more attention than usual these days. Though I’m confident that some of that attention is a good thing, I find myself feeling nostalgic and thinking about the days when almost nothing we ate came in a package with a label on it. Our meat was mostly fresh or smoked, and our veggies came from our little family farm or the farm of one of our neighbors. Granted, our diet back in my younger days didn’t offer a lot of variety, but we were more concerned with how the drumstick tasted than whether the turkey was living a happy life before becoming the main course. 

Taking Food Seriously ~
But because God seems to take food pretty seriously, maybe it’s a good thing for some of us to focus on it a bit more than we might be prone to do. Obviously, we don’t get very far into the Word of God before we’re running into comments about food, and by Genesis Chapter 3, it takes center stage. You might even make a case for God’s ban on eating the fruit from that forbidden tree as being the first example of the “Food Police” in action. But God’s objective in weighing in (no pun intended) on our dietary practices was not to burden us with another list of restrictive ordinances. His directives were intended to promote our physical health and as an added benefit, He used them to reinforce our understanding of spiritual principles and to promote our spiritual welfare. 

In my younger, overweight days, I hated hearing people say things like,“You are what you eat.” Picturing a bloated “Little Debbie” cake with my face on it was not a fun thought. But though I’m not as much a candidate for those popular weight-loss shots now as I used to be, I’m not living on the farm anymore, either. That means that most of our food these days does come in a package with a label on it. Whether we tend to be diligent about reading them or not, knowing a little more about what we ingest than what it tastes like makes a lot of sense. And that brings us to the concept we want to address in this brief little Thanksgiving week edition; i.e., God’s consistent pattern of connecting profoundly important spiritual principles with food. 

Another Perspective ~
Clearly, the food we ingest is the only access our bodies have to the energy needed to sustain our lives and to enable us to function physically. That puts it pretty high on the list of important things in the physical realm, which is why God uses it to highlight some of the most vitally significant spiritual issues. The sacrificial lamb and unleavened bread of Passover, and the bread and wine Jesus sanctified at the “Last Supper,” immediately come to mind. But from a broader perspective, we realize that just as food in all its many forms is intended to nourish us and contribute to our overall physical wellbeing, so it is in the spiritual realm as well. In much the same way that the food we eat translates to the nourishment that maintains our physical health, our application of the principles that Jesus taught translate into spiritual nourishment. Consider in that regard, the implications of Paul’s admonition to Timothy:

If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. (1 Timothy 4:6 NKJV)

Paul makes it clear in this passage that words of faith and good doctrine have the capacity to add nourishment to those who receive them. But the question is just how do words and doctrinal exposition become strength-building, energizing forces in our lives? Some clues to the answer are found in considering how our bodies handle the food we eat … 

Amazing Transformations ~
When we swallow our food, our digestive system takes over and begins breaking it down, separating the elements into categories. Some will be discarded and eliminated, some will be stored up for later use, and others designated for immediate application. While this is admittedly a gross oversimplification my purpose is to point out that the process of absorbing physical nutrients is amazing. It seems almost miraculous to me that God invented a way to take the food I eat and actually turn it into living parts of me. Maybe that country singer who calls himself, “Jelly Roll” is more accurate than he thinks. And now that I think about  it, maybe I should start introducing myself as “Chicken Nuggets and Waffle Fries”.

But this miraculous and vital procedure God designed requires some conscious, purposeful activity on our part. It requires actually ingesting the food. If my biceps need a dose of protein, rubbing a beef brisket on my arms won’t help. It may get me referred for counseling, but it cannot add to my body a single gram of the protein it contains. In the same way, receiving the nourishment latent in those words of faith Paul wrote about requires applying the behaviors and attitudes they admonish us to practice. Just listening to them and not applying them is about like rubbing that brisket on our arms.

Addressing the Spiritual Nourishment ~
Debates about additives and questionable ingredients in our processed food are making the news more than ever as another Thanksgiving approaches. Perhaps more people than ever will be looking at some of those dishes we plan to serve and asking, “What’s really in it?”  But what if we asked about some of those things we do that affect our spiritual nourishment? Let’s consider, for instance, that potentially nourishing spiritual activity we’re about to celebrate; i.e., the giving of our thanks, a practice that the Apostle Paul mentioned in one way or another at least 35 times in the New Testament epistles that bear his name. An epistle to the Thessalonians includes one very familiar example that seems to be almost all-encompassing. 

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV)

 We may not always think about all the spiritual nutrients, but they represent some of the reasons why God considers offering gratitude to be of such value. And because the subject of toxic ingredients is such a hot topic these days, consider some unacceptable, artificial additives to thanksgiving that can have toxic results:

• • Expressions of gratitude can become a superficial wrapping for disingenuous flattery. 
  • Giving thanks can camouflage deceitful manipulation – a means of planting hooks in someone from whom we want more.
  • Hypocrisy – Expressing gratitude dishonestly – saying “thanks” for something for which you feel no genuine benefit. 

But to close out on the positive side, there are spiritually energizing natural ingredients that God included in the giving of thanks. Let’s endeavor to remember them every day, not just once a year.

• • A genuine sense of ‘benefit’ – an awareness that life has made better in some way.
  • Being specific about the benefit – and how it benefited you.
  • God meant that giving thanks be primarily personal, so whenever possible, recognizing and acknowledging those to whom your gratitude should be directed is an important part of the process. 
  • A desire that reciprocal blessings be bestowed on those to whom the gratitude is offered. 
  • An awareness of grace – a realization that God is the ultimate provider of “every good and perfect gift” we ever receive.
  • An awareness of interpersonal connectedness – an awareness of how important community is to God.

So as we wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving, and as we express gratitude to God and to one another, let’s all take a moment to ask ourselves, “What’s really in it?”

~  H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G ,  2 0 2 4  ~

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