Food and Love

by David George

Food is an amazing thing. It comes in an infinite number of textures, flavors, colors, temperatures and consistencies. There is as much variety in food as the human imagination can conceive of. There is almost no limit to the variety of food that we can eat and enjoy.

Take potatoes for instance. They can be boiled, fried, deep-fried, baked, twice baked or eaten raw. They can be eaten with cheese, ketchup, gravy (beef, chicken, pork or turkey flavored), broccoli, butter, sour cream, carrots, olive oil, bacon, etc. I’ve eaten potatoes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and every snack in between. In spite of all my experience with potatoes, my wife still has this innate ability to conceive of new ways to cook them, mix them and generally make them tasty for eating (and don't get me started on Russian skills with potatoes!).

Love is similar to food in this way. There is no end to the ways in which it can be shown to others. You can show love through your patience, kindness, helpfulness, faithfulness, righteousness, forgiveness and goodness. You can communicate love through a hug, a smile, a kind word, a thoughtful gift, a good conversation or even cooking potatoes. We speak love differently to a daughter than a son, to a friend than a wife, or to a parent than a grandchild. Every relationship we have possesses unique possibilities of showing love. There is actually more ways of showing love than there are varieties of food in this world if that were possible to fathom.

Much in the same way that chefs and culinary artists explore the realms of food, Christians should dedicate themselves to explore the ways of showing love to others. The only limit is our own imagination. Show love to someone today in a fresh innovative way.