Eric Burnley

I love to cook. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States, so I get to express my love for cooking and my love for people by cooking a feast for 18 in my family! I also love to watch the Food Network. This is one of the ways that I find rest, relaxing in front of the TV and unwinding from life and ministry as gifted chefs go to work. I find it peaceful, but it’s also educational. I have learned so much about the plants and animals that God created and have implemented much of it as I try to recreate my own beautiful, tasty, and satisfying meals. I love that God has blessed us with such a wide variety of things to eat. The world he has created is a wonderful banquet table, which we are reminded of over Thanksgiving. Perhaps it is my love for the culinary arts that helps me appreciate the beauty of the word pictures in Isaiah 55: Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Thanksgiving, or any holiday or major banquet of a meal, is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the gospel truths found in Isaiah 55. Yes, enjoy the food and celebrate the glory and creativity of God in creation, but preach the gospel to yourself, too. God knows that people are spiritually hungry. People are constantly looking for life and for peace and satisfaction of heart. God has wired this spiritual hunger into us, so that it would drive us to him. This Isaiah 55 passage is a gracious invitation to the spiritually hungry and thirsty to come to the one and only place where your heart can be filled. The physical things of this earth are not designed to satisfy your spiritual hunger. The most wonderful experiences or relationships or possessions in this life will not fill your heart. So, with a tender and compassionate heart, God says, “Come to me. I have prepared for you the one meal that will fill and satisfy that hunger in your heart. And, best of all, you don’t have to pay for the food I give you—it’s free!” Then he asks the question of questions: “Why would you work hard for and spend money on what cannot satisfy?” People do this every day. At great cost and with hard work, people run after and consume things that will never satisfy the hunger that drives them. What about you? As you sit at the Thanksgiving table tomorrow, ask yourself: “At what created table do I sit, hoping that my hungry heart will be satisfied by creation, when it can only be satisfied by an intimate relationship with my Creator?” The Lord’s invitation to you is to come to him, eat from the banquet of his grace, and live. What he offers is free, because the Son has paid the cost. May we come again and again to the only One who has the bread that will satisfy our hearts!