Food
Let's talk about Christmas food today. I love Christmas food! On Christmas Day we tend to have a big meal at the house. All the family come round and we do quite a feast. Everyone usually eats a little bit too much, but man, there's so much food and so much dessert that it just seems like a great opportunity to feast and be merry.
Eternal Spiritual Nourishment
There are very few meals that I remember like our Christmas meals that we share as a family, and that's precious. It's always precious to share a meal together and to feast together, absolutely. But again, today I want to remind us what Jesus said in John 4. The disciples were very worried that he hadn't eaten and Jesus said, “I have food to eat that you don't know anything about.” And so they looked at each other and said, did somebody bring him some food? And Jesus said in verse 34, “my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
This Christmas, you know what I want to do? I want to eat and be glad that God has provided for me. But with every mouthful, I want to remind myself, my real food is the work of God. My real food is to do what God has called me to do out in the world, which is to show the character of Christ in all that I do, in the way that I love God and in the way that I love people.
Feast on Christ
In fact, later on in John chapter 6, Jesus says, “do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.” Let me ask you this: Have we spent the whole year working for food that's going to spoil, working for food that ultimately won't satisfy? Because even those great Christmas feasts don't ultimately satisfy. It's the food that endures, it's the faith in Christ and the great delight in having him in our lives that is our greatest food, and that food will last.
And so may it be a Christmas of much feasting, but not only on food that will spoil. But on the great food for our souls that Jesus himself can endure.
Feast on him this Christmas, friends, and be blessed as you do.
