Acquiring a taste for Heaven

On my morning breaks, I often pray, meditate, ponder, or just be as I walk through the historic neighborhood behind the library. On one of these walks last week I was thinking about food and the modified dietary restrictions that I've been implementing the last couple of months. One of the biggest changes is the amount of meat I'm able to consume. Vegetarian and vegan cookbooks have been a blessing during this transition, and there are some seriously tasty and filling foods that don't involve meat out there!

Background for those not familiar: I learned through a process of elimination that I am highly sensitive to glutamate (natural and unnaturally occurring). So I've been learning which foods are high in glutamate and removing or strictly limiting them in my diet. This means, no more slow cooked meat of all types as "low and slow" releases the glutamate bound in meat (this also means chicken/beef stock is out too). I can't eat commercially-raised pork as they often feed glutamine as an antibiotic substitute to the pigs directly. I personally can't stand the flavor most fish/seafood, and some of it makes me sick. I also try to make sure my meat was ethically-raised, but that comes with a hefty price tag. All that combined means much less meat consumed...and a re-working of many meals I used to prepare.

Back to the walk-inspired pondering, these restrictions make table fellowship interesting to navigate. It's not fun to be sent pitying glances when I am eating other food than the full group. I don't mean to insult anyone's cooking by bringing my own tupperware along. Some kind people really want to try to make something for me, but it is a game of roulette that can make me very ill with a tiny mistake if I'm not paying attention to every single ingredient down to the spices/sauces going into a dish.

Layered onto my food musings, I was also finishing up a book that had me contemplating the restoration of creation, our future redeemed bodies, and food as symbolism. Then this phrase came to mind: "Acquiring a taste for Heaven." Like someone learning to appreciate good cheese, fine wine, or dark chocolate. Have I, of necessity, become an "early adopter" of a more heavenly diet?

Not that eating meat is sinful this side of eternity, Paul was quite clear that whatever we eat or drink should be to the honor and glory of God and that we should not judge each other over mere opinions over food and holy days (Romans 14, Colossians 2, 1 Corinthians 10). So upfront I'm not saying everyone needs to be a strict vegan. I'm not vegan; I still eat carefully sourced and prepared meat and dairy.

That being said, Isaiah 11 speaks of the wolf and lamb, leopard and goat, lion and calf, child and snakes all living in harmony. Even mentions the bear grazing like a cow. A beautiful picture of Shalom. The first recorded death of an animal was after the fall of Adam and Eve. God had to kill His very own creation that He had just a couple chapter before called good. If Death is to be eliminated and Creation restored, maybe the marriage supper of the Lamb will be a bit more vegetarian than I had previously imagined? (Revelation 19:9)

His Peaceable Kingdom - Nancy Conant

Reframing what I have been viewing as a limitation as a shadow of the ultimate feast has been an intriguing thought experiment this last week (Colossians 2:17). So maybe the next time you eat with someone with dietary restrictions or vegan/vegetarian convictions, don't view them as someone to be pitied or lord it over them with teasing or even advice. Consider using the meal to contemplate the Heavenly Feast to come.

The food will be delicious no matter what is or isn't on the menu.