Thou shalt not eat of it...

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.... And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. - Genesis 2: 9, 16-17 (KJV)

Interesting to me that the fall of humanity is centered around...food and the act of eating.

I find the contemplation of eating, food and the spiritual practice of fasting to be a deep well of pondering. To connect food and eating to the act of prayer or to the discipline of fasting is a fascinating thing. Putting into practice the act of saying no to something, especially that you actually need to remain alive is fairly dramatic. Maybe the knowledge that you dont need something as much as you have trained yourself or allowed oneself to indulge is a spiritual truth and practical reality worth understanding?

The fact that God has intertwined the disciplines of faith with our natural rhythms, appetites and activities is probably worth grasping. Discovering that God is intimately connected the physical, tangible and touchable world with the untouchable, invisible spiritual world...reveals a profound interconnectedness.

The very thought that prayer over food is encouraged seems like an ancient superstition if looked at with purely natural eyes. Something tribal people do, an act of less educated people perhaps. It all seems so...archaic. And yet, the New Testament instructs us to blend prayer with eating.

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer." -1 Timothy 4:4-5

Incorporating eating and worship is a profound truth to explore. As is the tale of sin emerging from an inability to say no to eating something. It puts a whole cataclysmic spin on my mere temptation to stay away from some delicious pastry. I mean all of creation unraveled because of humanities inability to keep its mouth closed. The fact that the bible puts food at the center of such a eternal event that in the pinnacle of all redemptive acts...even produced the shedding of the blood of God...is slightly mysterious to me.

Puts my struggle with eating in a whole different perspective...not saying I understand it all..but it does make one stroke his chin beard in a fairly inquisitive manner.