Everyone needs to eat.
Cooking pots, hosting, and being hosted
This week’s field trip included a fascinating museum about Israel’s culture, past and present. As I stood at a display marking the evolution of the cooking pot from the Byzantine empire to the Early Canaanite period, I thought about my own favorite cooking pot back home and how there has forever and always been a need for food.
It was incredibly grounding to find my place there in human history. To find myself in the timeline of those called to prepare food for the gathering of their people. For those of us called to create spaces for connection and filling tummies with (hopefully delicious) food.
This idea of hosting and creating spaces for connection remained on my mind as we had the honor of hosting students from Micronesia studying with the Professor.
It was fun to hear their stories and play games with them and learn things about their culture. We learned they don’t have a word for goodbye. They only say “until we meet again”. They also taught us that if a foreigner comes, you are treated like royalty. The best of the best food is prepared and there is an abundance of it.
The abundance of food for guests is something we have experienced here as we have been hosted. And as we learned at the museum, this has been a high value for all of Israelite history. In addition to abundance of food though, there is also the high value for a host to provide safety and security for their guests.
After learning and ruminating on all these thoughts about eating and hosting, we read Psalm 23 this week. This is one of the first things I ever memorized and so I’ve heard it plenty, but studying the culture this week, I made a new connection with this passage.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
God hosts us. And his heart is to host with abundance and security for his guests.
He prepares a feast. An abundance of food. And where is this feast? In front of the enemies! They have arrived and demanded that the guest be sent out to them. God says no. You can’t have him.
Abundance and Security. As I take refuge in the Lord’s Presence. No wonder that David also says in Psalm 34, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
David didn’t want to leave that space and I don’t either!
God is a good host indeed. I’m thankful for the abundance and safety found in Him.
