Solitude...alone but not lonely. A place to reflect on life.

Published in November 2012 Living Today:

Biblical Food and Drink

            No one likes good food quite like I do. If I allowed myself, I would be munching on something all the time just because I like the taste of almost anything edible.

             I also eat for other reasons that I shouldn’t admit. I eat when I’m happy and I eat when I’m feeling down in the dumps. I wish I could be more like my husband who just “eats to live.”  I am more of a “live to eat” person.

            Because I love to eat, especially sweet things, I have had to go on one of those things called “a diet” from time to time. Yes, I do think I have tried them all. Recently though I heard someone say if you ate just the foods mentioned in the Bible you would have not only a healthy diet, but one that was satisfying.

            So I decided to look into that, thinking to myself that I had doubts because I don’t ever remember fudge or frosted Christmas cookies being mentioned in the Bible.

            What I found was impressive, even without the fudge. I am not a Bible expert, but I was able to find eleven different kinds of fruits and nuts mentioned in it…they just happen to be among my very favorite foods. I also found five different vegetables and legumes and five different grains mentioned. (Don’t you just love those multi grain breads? Mmmmm) 

            I also discovered a number of meats being eaten by those in the Bible. From what I could tell, they ate a lot of fish, four kinds of fowl, and six kinds of animal meats. That protein is so good for us.

            I was overjoyed when I discovered that the Bible diet would also allow me to have my dairy products, including cheese.

            Then to top off all those food, I found ten kinds of spices with my favorites:  salt, cinnamon, dill and mint.

            I wasn’t completely convinced that I could do the Bible food diet though until I found something that would satisfy my sweet tooth. And there it was…in Exodus 33:3, a whole land flowing with milk and honey.

            I could have honey on top of my five grain bread. That’s almost as good as a frosted Christmas cookie!

            A healthy diet isn’t complete without one essential thing though. The experts are telling us we should be drinking a half gallon of water everyday.  Would my Biblical diet include that?

            I should not have doubted it. Of course water is mentioned in the Bible. It even has a special name. It wasn’t spring water, purified water or mineral water. It wasn’t  artesian well water, tap water or sparkling bottled water.

            It was called “Living Water.”

            Jesus told us about living water one day as he sat down beside a well, “being wearied with his journey.” I think that means it was a hot day, (much like the many we had this past summer), he had traveled far and he was about as thirsty as a human being can be.  Unfortunately the well he found that day wasn’t one that had a pump or a tap on it. He needed some kind of container to draw water from the well.

            As he sat there, a woman of questionable character came to the well. Jesus, being Jesus knew exactly who and what she was but it didn’t matter to him. He asked her to give him a drink of water. 

            Of course she questioned him; she couldn’t understand why a man like Jesus would ask anything of someone like her.

            The words Jesus spoke next changed her life.

             “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water….. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”(John 4:10, 13 NIV)

            The woman immediately knew that Jesus wasn’t speaking of water that would quench physical thirst. He was speaking of the water of Life that quenches the spiritual thirst that everyone experiences.

             As intense as physical thirst can get, there are times when our spirits can be just as thirsty. The only thing that quenches that spiritual thirst is a relationship with our Creator through His son Jesus Christ.

            I am convinced today that the Biblical diet I discovered would satisfy, both physically and spiritually the hunger and  thirst of anyone, including me.  And the best part… the dining room is always open and the well of living water flows freely.

©2012 Brenda J. Young