To You it shall be for Meat

This week, I was away with friends who love cooking. A few evenings ago, I was typing away on my laptop as they were sitting next door watching the Great British Bake-off and The Big Family Cooking Showdown. These are not programmes I would usually choose to watch and I protested they are not my thing. Nevertheless, I could still hear them and see the TV screen through the doorway, and I watched far more than I’d like to admit. They are both essentially competitions in which individuals or groups are required to prepare particular meals or dishes. Sniffy, condescending judges then sample each finished product, offering praise or criticism as their taste buds and egos dictate. At the end of the show, they melodramatically announce the winner using much pausing, in order to increase the suspense. I find these judges rather pompous but the skill of the amateur cooks and bakers is wonderfully impressive. I may be content with beans on toast or ready meals for my sustenance, but these people would put some restaurants to shame. That they can transform vegetables, herbs, fruit, cereals and carcasses into tasty and nourishing food, is testament to our God-given creativity and God-given earthly bounty.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

(Genesis 1:29)

Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay