Feasting on God’s creation

“you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but” Genesis 2:16

Free to eat –  What did God have in mind when He made the garden and placed Man in it?  Did He expect Man to be a passive recipient of its beauty?  No, Man was given work to do.  Did He expect Man to live frugally among its splendors?  You might be inclined to answer, “Yes, Man was to be the caretaker”.  But a closer look at this phrase tells us something quite different.

John Rankin points out that the Hebrew akol tokel literally means, “in feasting you shall feast”.  The words imply taking full delight in devouring and consuming.  Akol is used to describe the devouring fire.  God intended Man to enjoy and use the full range of His creation.  Except, of course, just one thing.

God is no miser.  He loves to share what He makes.  In fact, now we see that God planned creation to be the banquet feast for human beings.  He made it for us to enjoy.  He was thinking about our experiences long before He began the process.  Can you imagine that!  God wanted to share all that He made with us.  His first commandment is “Enjoy it all!  Take a big bite and see how good it is!  It’s there just for you.  Go ahead.  Feast!”

Notice that God associates freedom with enjoyment.  The intention of being free under the reign of the Lord is to give you His great pleasure and to allow you to enjoy all that He made.  That’s not a statement about vacations, leisure time or hobbies.  When we are doing what God made us to do, we experience that divine syncopation built into creation.  We are in flow with the universe.  We feast on the goodness of the Lord.

Do you know what that feels like?  Have there been times in your life when things just seemed exactly right?  That doesn’t mean they were always easy, but they brought out the best in you and you were fully consumed in the task.  If life today doesn’t engage all of you, then you’re not sitting at God’s banquet table.  Something is wrong and it’s not what the chef is making.  Today is a day to pray, “Father, I want to sit at your table and enjoy the feast.”