Nourishment

Tonight I decided to fix myself some asparagus. I love vegetables but my husband does not share my passion.  He can't even stand the smell of asparagus cooking, so I tend to cook and eat them when he isn't around. Tonight he is sleeping at the other end of the house so he won't notice.

I got to thinking about the asparagus and all the other vegetables we eat, how the plants grow and bear vegetables and how trees grow and bear fruit.  These asparagus were growing out in a field, then were harvested and somehow made it across the distance to my plate.  One living and growing, now in the my belly giving me nourishment.

It's not just animals and fish that live and are killed for food so that we may eat and have nourishment to live.  It is all things that wind up on our dinner plate. Thus I realized that each day, each meal for us to survive, something must die.  And that ending of being as it once was, like the asparagus that is now a chewed up mess in my stomach, no longer looks like it did in the field and will be gone out of existance like it was soon. My body will convert it into energy and take out all the nutrients my body needs to run healthy and efficently.

We live with this concept whether we believe in God, or Jesus, or the Bible. To live something dies.

So on that train of thought, I realized that Jesus was sacrificed on the cross, and died, no longer a being in human form.  By his death, we are able to get the forgiveness of our sins and receive the gift of eternal life.

How often in our lives and others lives is the existance of God questioned, and the role Jesus played on earth examined.  Many say Jesus was just a prophet and miss what the Bible says about him and his life.

Yet in our everyday silent acceptance of the food we eat, not often thinking about where it comes from...or how it got on our plate, we are indeed getting life from a sacrifice of something living.

In John 6 it says:     ³⁵ Jesus said unto them. I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst....

⁵³ Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves.

⁵⁴ He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

⁵⁵ For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

⁵⁶ He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him.

⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me.

Later in Matthew 26 at the last supper....

²⁶ And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it; and he gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

²⁷ And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins.

²⁹ But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

As with the nourishment we get everyday from eating food, so do we nourish our souls with the word of God. As our food allows us to survive another day, so does abiding in Jesus and allowing him to abide in us, help us to thrive spiritually.

Many find it hard to comprehend communion. When I went to church during the summer I would pass out and I would have to be carried out of the church during the service. The minister told me it would be okay if I didn't go to church during the summer.  The saying of the words about the body and the blood of Christ and the heat actually had a physical effect on me. It was never at any other part of the service.

The whole concept of Holy Communion is not about canabalism, it is a physical understanding of a spriritual process.

We all have spirits minds and souls.  We need nourishment in the spiritual realm. When we avoid God and the spiritual needs we have, we are like thirsty people, looking for something to quench that thirst and so many look to drink the wrong things to satisfy that thirst and come up short. We all may experience this at times in our lives.

If we listen to a song and the music, we get to know it by heart after awhile. We know what is coming next and what a great feeling when we sing the song...especially when we are amongst others singing.  The song can lift our spirits, and we can feel emotion, joy when we sing it. So is it when we hear the word of God, or hear Chriitian songs that may have more meaning the farther down the road we go spiritually. I find songs I now listen to, since my healing in October, now fill me with such emotion, I cry tears of joy.

When we decided to seek out God and learn about Jesus and the Holy spirit, we begin a journey and open the door to "feed" our souls. Our walk and belief in Jesus becomes a part of us, just like the songs we hear in our lives and so love. Many times I hear a song from my childhood or happy times in my life and listening to it is like seeing an old dear friend that I haven't see for many years.  So is it when we return to seek out God and spiritual things, we can so rejoice at the love, mercy, forgiveness, peace, joy and hope we receive.

So many times when I have been more focused on the world, it makes me depressed.  Watching the news several times a day, where the same sad stories are repeated, can give one a view that there is only tragedy in this world. Evil people doing evil things to people who didn't deserve it. Wars that don't make sense and the death tolls are often updated each day.  Even when hurricanes and sunamis are reported we realize the fragility of our lives and feel powerless to do anything to protect our families.  The news many times is full of things that makes us fear and doubt and sometimes makes us think there is no hope.

I encourage you to focus on the good things in the Bible....on the beautiful flowers, the sunrises and sunsets, - the evidence of a loving God who gives us a bounty of beauty and of hope.  I encourage you to go fill your heart with the joy of the Lord instead of the troubles of this world.

In the Lord we can find joy while living in this imperfect world, we can find peace in our minds that we have something so much better beyond this world to look forward to...and a better purpose to our lives other than working 9 to 5. Walking in faith and not by sight, enables us to trust in the lord, believe in the things unseen, and have a more abundant life.