We are omnivores, who are capable because of the Creator’s design to eat just about anything. In Jeffrey Steingarten’s book, The Man Who Ate Everything, he observes:
By design and by destiny, humans are omnivores. Our teeth and digestive systems are all-purpose and ready for anything. Our genes do not dictate what foods we should find tasty or repulsive. We come into the world with a yen for sweets…and a weak aversion to bitterness, and after four months develop a fondness for salt….All human cultures consider fur, paper, and hair inappropriate as food. And that’s about it. Everything else is learned.
The nifty thing about being omnivores is that we can take nourishment from an endless variety of flora and fauna and easily adapt to a changing world—crop failures, droughts, herd migrations, restaurant closings, and the like. Lions and tigers will starve in a salad bar, as will cows in a steak house, but not us…
By closing ourselves off from the bounties of nature, we become failed omnivores. We let down the omnivore team. God tells us in the Book of Genesis, right after Noah’s flood, to eat everything under the sun. Those who ignore his instructions are no better than godless heathens. [pp. 4-5]
Adam was given the world to rule, and the world to eat. At the Lord’s Table we eat bread and drink wine, which are not natural products; they are the products of human labor or dominion. Thus, the Lord endorses our dominion, our economics of bread-making, and brings it into His presence in worship. Food expresses our creativity, which is central to being images of God. Every recipe―every meal―is an expression of dominion over the creatures. Therefore, your kitchen is a place of redemption; where the earth is subdued to the glory of God!
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