The single main thing that connects me with anyone even remotely close to me is … a love of food.
I’m serious.
People who say that they eat purely to live remain a mystery to me. One that I hold little interest in unravelling.
I love food.
During lockdown it’s taken on even more of a prominent role offering even more of a source of joy! Every day I delight in planning the next meals!
I love to read recipes (must have accompanying pictures), experiment with new dishes, savour the sampling of them and share all with others!
It would be true to say that I have a hearty appetite for life and all that fuels it.
Last weekend, along with a treasured friend I experienced my first Lockdown afternoon tea session courtesy of app of the moment; zoom! It was fantabulous. I loved it! And my friend did too.
How wonderful it is to share food with one another, even if we must use technology to do so.
Friday evening even saw me ‘having dinner’ with another friend over a WhatsApp video call.
How times have changed.
And these were people like me who only a few short months ago would not have believed it possible to even operate such new fangled technological ways! Now we even find ourselves ‘teaching’ others how to access this previously foreign territory!
These meetings involving top notch food and company have filled and fuelled my body and soul.
But what of my spirit?
There are some hungers that only God can fulfil.
Throughout lockdown whenever I have encountered my lowest moments, it has been God Almighty who has fed, nurtured and nourished me.
Of course, as in ordinary non lockdown life, He often does this through those around me; neighbours, friends, nature and the like. But it is in those moments when no one else is around or available that God delivers.
I keep seeing the Domino’s ad at the moment where they remind us that they are delivering pizza to our doors so that we can stay home. Yum!
And I cannot help but think about the God who delivers whatever we need if not what we want, whenever we need it whilst we stay home; peace, encouragement, comfort, hope, patience, trust, strength, wisdom and all those other crucial things that no fast or even slow food places can deliver.
Early on in lockdown I couldn’t imagine being able to tolerate the hunger for the physical presence of another human. Yet Jesus Himself reminded me of his promise that those who come to him shall never go hungry. He fed and continues to feed me with His presence. It is not the same as human contact but it is enough. Jesus delivers.
A few weeks in to lockdown I started to do that thing that us humans are notorious for doing; I started looking around and making comparisons with others (or what I thought I knew about others). Who has got what or who in their life, or more to the point, who has got what I have not! Funnily enough I did not invest as heartily in comparing who has not got what I have got!
But anyway, as my feelings got uglier and uglier, I had to take them to God and ask Him to exchange them for a big feed of his goodness on the understanding that whatever I am holding within me cannot help but spill out to those around me. Again, Jesus delivered.
In addition to the spiritual superfood from Jesus, I continue to work with my own counsellor. I am way too aware that this keeps me from pretending to myself that I cannot see the issues I need to address! Besides if I’m going to continue to facilitate others working on their mental and emotional health during these unusual times, I believe it is only right that I continue to work on my own.
As I continued to reflect on the way that God feeds and nourishes me, I acknowledged as I have many times before that I need to approach Him and His word with the same frequency and enthusiasm that I approach preparing my daily food menu’s. For if my physical food is something that I give so much time, thought and attention to, is it not at least as important that I give the same to the one who feeds the parts of me that are more relevant than ever during this most unusual of times?
Food may bring me much delight but it is the food of God’s word and presence that equips me for the unique rewards and challenges of daily lockdown life.
Whether I need comfort in my aloneness, a peace that defies these circumstances, a strength to continue with what is necessary, a wisdom superior to my own for big life decisions, provision when I am lacking; financially, emotionally or in any other way, trust for the uncertainties of the future, or one of THE most important things in life; an ability to laugh at myself when I’m being horrid, my God delivers.
Through Jesus, God is my ultimate superfood. He never runs out, goes off, tells me I can’t have anymore or fails to provide the necessary sustenance for the day ahead.
Whilst I recognise that I am on the whole in an incredibly fortunate position during this lockdown and that this is far from the case for all, I also know that God is more than able to feed each of us exactly what we need to continue engaging in whatever our daily life consists of.
He is the ultimate feeder.
And whilst He is most definitely in our lockdown, He is not on Lockdown.
He delivers whilst we stay home.
What a superfood we have in Jesus.