Craving a Favorite Meal
There’s
something deeply satisfying about watching your favorite meal being made. The
anticipation builds as you imagine the aroma, the texture, the first bite. I’ve
found myself craving a favorite dish so intensely that I traveled a distance
just to enjoy it. But that craving—that hunger—is more than just physical. It’s
a mirror of something spiritual, something eternal.
I
think about how Jesus, my Lord and Savior, also cooked. That’s still
such a beautiful, humbling thought to me.
Even
Jesus Cooked Too
Did
you know that Jesus made breakfast for His disciples after His resurrection?
John 21 tells us that when the disciples had gone back to fishing, Jesus stood
on the shore. He told them where to cast their nets, and they caught an
abundance of fish. Then, when they came ashore, they found a fire of burning
coals with fish on it—and bread. Jesus said, “Come and have breakfast” (John
21:12).
Jesus,
the risen King, was by the shore — fire burning, fish grilling, bread warming.
It’s giving “breakfast in bed,” but even better: breakfast by the sea — cooked by the hands that were nailed for
us. It always blows my mind to think about how my precious Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ made breakfast! I once joked that this must’ve been the best meal
ever prepared on this side of eternity.
This
moment is so precious to me.
Because
sometimes we think preparing a meal is a chore, a thankless task. But this
story flips the script. Christ redeemed
the kitchen. He—King of kings, Lord of lords—redeemed that mundane
moment by entering it. He cooked for His disciples, His friends, the ones He
loved. He cooked with hands that had just been pierced for us. The same hands
that stretched out on the cross to save us reached out again to feed us. He
didn’t just die for us; He serves us. Again. Resurrected, radiant, scarred —
and still loving through food. It’s intimate. It’s holy.
The
Hebrew name for YHWH—Yud Hei Vav Hei—has been described as symbolizing
“the Hand of Grace Nailed in Grace.” That visual wrecks me. Yet Jesus’
hands—once nailed, now resurrected—were used again in grace. Those nail-scarred
hands? They cooked. They reached down into the coals. They broke the
bread. They prepared a meal, to nourish and serve.
As
believers in Christ today, that redeems our hands, too. Our cooking. Our care. Because
our hands, too, often go unnoticed. But now, when we think about our own hands—
hands that cook, scrub dishes, get tired, or smell like spices after meal prep
— those hands might sometimes feel ordinary, but in Christ, they’re redeemed for holy work. Two things can
be true: in all the ways our hands get messy and often unnoticed in the
mundane, they are still beautiful. They still do redemptive work. They still
demonstrate love.
Craving
& Anticipation as Spiritual Hunger
Remember
that craving I had for a favorite meal that I had to travel to get it? I could
smell it in my imagination. I traveled to get it, waited for it to be prepared
and made ready, looked forward to it. That craving stuck with me—not just for
the food, but for the feeling. It reminded me of something deeper. Our
spiritual hunger.
Our
Heavenly Chef, Jesus, traveled a much greater distance—from heaven to earth—to
meet us in our spiritual weakness and hunger and cook for us. When I think
about the theology of warm cooked meals, I think about anticipation. About
hunger. About that deep craving that nothing else satisfies — except one meal.
And
here’s the wonder: He’s both the Chef
and the Meal.
He
feeds us from heaven’s kitchen. Fresh, warm, life-giving food. And He gives us
cool, refreshing water to drink. Psalm 36:8–9 paints the picture: "They feast on the abundance of your
house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the
fountain of life; in your light we see light."
What
imagery! A feast. A fountain. Deep delight. Real nourishment. That’s what grace
feels like. That’s what meals represent—and they all point to Jesus Christ.
Jesus
said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of
life.” That’s hot, fresh-out-the-oven, soul-satisfying bread. He also said
in John 4:14, “Whoever drinks the water I
give them will never thirst.”
And
then there’s wine — oh, the wine. The first miracle Jesus ever performed was at
a wedding, when He turned water into wine: “You have kept the good wine
until now!” – John 2:10
Wine,
in Scripture, is often a symbol of joy, covenant, and celebration. And at Cana,
Jesus brought joy to a wedding — not just physically, but prophetically. He
brought grace to the celebration.
Then
I remember Exodus 15:23–25,
where the Israelites reached Marah, but the water was bitter: “When they
came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter... Then
Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw
it into the water, and the water became sweet.”
That
wood is a picture of the Cross.
Christ makes bitter waters sweet. He doesn't just provide nourishment; He transforms the whole experience of hunger.
The
Table of Grace: You’re Invited
The
kingdom of God is constantly described as a banquet, a feast, a
table where people are invited
to eat and drink freely: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” – Isaiah 55:1
Jesus
even told parables about this heavenly feast — like in Luke 14, where He describes a great banquet and says: “Go out
to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house
will be full.” – Luke 14:23
You
are invited.
To
come hungry.
To
sit at His table.
To
eat and be satisfied.
To
drink deeply of joy, grace, and glory.
Imagine
God’s lavish grace as a feast and all the dishes on that table are the manifold
blessings and promises Christ purchased for us at the cross. We eat and we
enjoy by faith. We feast on forgiveness, joy, peace, healing, wholeness,
righteousness.
Psalm
23:5 says: “You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.”
A
table. Prepared. For you. With enemies around, yes—but also with
abundance and covering and rest. Jesus invites you to sit. To eat. To be
filled. This is what we do spiritually. We eat the Word of God’s grace – all
that Christ has done for us through His sacrifice and finished work on the
cross. We also eat physical representations of His body and blood through
communion – a precious time to fellowship with him to remember his love for us
that He demonstrated when he gave His body to be broken for ours to be healed
and whole and when He allowed His blood to be shed for the forgiveness of our
sins.
The
Gift of Hunger
One
of the most profound thoughts I’ve had is that hunger itself is a gift.
Why? Because hunger signals life and it draws us closer to the food we eat to
live (which is also a blessing). Dead people don’t feel hungry. Feeling the
rumble in your stomach? That’s your body saying, “You’re alive. You need
nourishment.” Spiritually, it’s the same. When we feel that craving, that deep
desire—it’s a sign of life. We eat when we’re hungry. Physically, we eat food.
Spiritually, we feast on the Word of God’s grace.
Jesus
said in Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
It’s
interesting to note that spiritual hunger is a gift and what satisfies our
hunger (righteousness) is also a gift (Romans 5:17). How cool is that? Did you
know Christ is our righteousness? (1 Corinthians 1:30) So when we are hungry
and thirsty for the gift of righteousness, it’s ultimately Christ we need. We
feast on Him and we are filled with Him. It’s basically the idea of feeding (by
learning and listening to God’s love for us demonstrated by what Jesus has done
for us on the cross and how through the finished work of the cross, Christ now
supplies His grace and righteousness to us as a gift. This is what we feast on—Christ
and Him crucified.)
Everyone
Eats – Everyone Experiences Redemption
Every
human eats. That means every human participates in a picture of
redemption—whether they know it or not. Imagine how much richer our experiences
of eating would be, if we acknowledged and enjoyed God’s redemptive meaning behind
it? Even Jesus had to eat and enjoy eating food as a man. I wonder if He had
favorite dishes. In the same way, God created us to enjoy food—with a tongue
and mouth to taste and enjoy good food, a digestive system that processes food,
a stomach that stores it and a body that functions on it. Every part of us was wired to enjoy food, and
that in itself is a physical picture of how we're also spiritually wired to
enjoy Christ as our spiritual nourishment.
I
think about the people who planted and harvested the foods He ate, the
fishermen who caught His fish, and the cooks who prepared His meals. There’s a
long, invisible chain of people, all contributing to His life. Even today, when
we eat, we’re part of that same chain. Going to the market, buying ingredients,
cooking meals—it’s all sacred. There’s beauty in acknowledging the hands that
brought us our nourishment. It reminds us to be grateful. To be kind.
Restaurants
& Pulpits: Fed by Others
Eating
out—receiving a meal someone else prepared—can be a picture of what happens
when pastors, teachers, and ministry gifts serve us spiritual meals (the Word
of Grace). They labor to prepare a spiritual meal. We receive it. Our only
payment? Our attention.
Jesus
told the parable of a man who prepared a feast and invited many guests (Luke
14). When the original guests refused, the man said, “Go out quickly... and
bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame... so that my house
will be full.”
God’s
grace is a buffet. Freely given. Lavishly spread. And you’re welcome at the
table.
Hospitality
as Healing
In his book, Outlive Your Life, Max Lucado writes about hospitality as a powerful force.
He connects the words hospital and hospitality to their root
meaning: healing. Just as people go to hospitals for healing, people can
come into our homes and experience the healing presence of God and sometimes,
all it takes is a warm meal. But at the table, there's the intimacy and connection of sharing
a meal and looking at each other as you sit across the table, and that's
beautiful.
I
know how meaningful it is for me as a young adult living far from home, when a
trusted church leader invited me over for lunch. It isn’t about whether I could
afford to feed myself—it’s about belonging. About being seen. That home became
a taste of home.
We
might not be throwing a grand feast every time. It might be something simple.
But when we invite others to our table, we mirror God’s hospitality. We echo
His kingdom.
Days
of Heaven on Earth—Through Meals?
One
of the family blessings God promises in His Word is days of Heaven on earth
(Deuteronomy 11:21). Heaven on earth! Can you imagine what it might look like
to experience this every day? I believe that our daily practice of cooking and
eating meals might be one way to experience this because now we know that meals
are more than meals and that we can contemplate the riches of God’s redemptive
love for us through meals.
So
yeah, meals are metaphors. They’re meeting places. They’re mini-sanctuaries
where Jesus shows up. These ordinary meals — the cravings, the chopping, the
simmering, the eating — are holy.
The
kitchen is a sanctuary.
The table
is an altar.
And
the meal is a parable of God's
love made edible.
Every
meal becomes a reminder that Jesus is both the Chef and the Feast.
So
next time you're savoring your favorite dish, whether it’s Sunday rice and
stew, hot jollof, fresh bread, or warm soup, pause and smile. Because somewhere
in that aroma, in that warmth, in that satisfaction — Jesus is present. He is cooking. He is serving. He is feeding your
soul with love that never runs dry.
And
the biggest feast is still ahead: the wedding supper of the Lamb. Until then,
every meal is a reminder, a shadow, a whisper of that day.
You’re invited. Come hungry.
Not yet in the fam?
God is a good Father who loves you so much and wants you to be part of His family as His child. He offered His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pursue your heart and save you and bring you into the family. All you need to do is to receive His love and you can live in it and enjoy it for the rest of your life. Will you receive it? Then please say this prayer:
Father in Heaven, I thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending the gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ, to save me from my sins and give me eternal life. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins, He was buried and on the third day, He rose again, to make me right with you. I declare that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour. I thank you that I am now saved and I'm a member of your family. I ask that You fill me with the Holy Spirit and help me to know You more. In Jesus' name, amen.
Welcome!
If you said this prayer for the first time, you're now a child of God and I am excited that you are my sibling in Christ. Welcome!!! 🥳There's a whole party going on in Heaven right now, on your behalf, like the excitement over a newborn baby. Will you please reach out to me and let me bless you with a resource that will help you get started on your journey of faith? Click here to do so. I love you and can't wait to meet you.
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