What Does God Think Of Your Birthday Meal?

In my home, you design the meal on your birthday. Your favorite food, a special drink, a decadent dessert. You choose it all. I love that day. Crafting the best possible combination of foods makes my day perfect.

After that ideal meal, nothing is really different. So I’ve wondered why I love assembling dinner. It tastes good for a moment. But an hour after the meal, my life would be the same had I eaten rice and dry toast. My body would still have enough energy to function; my mood would be dependent on more recent events than my meal.

And yet, I love my birthday meal. What is it about food? It isn’t just fuel for the machine of our bodies. Our food keeps us alive. But in a mysterious way, it also gives us life.

Food isn’t the first thing I associate with technology.  Initially, I assume technology refers to things that require a battery or a plug. But the world I live in would look drastically different without technologies related to food.

Genetic engineering changes the kind of food I eat. Advancements in harvesting bring down the price of corn. Distribution networks give me access to blueberries and plums in the middle of winter.

My birthday meal would be impossible without technology.

It should come as no surprise, in our investigation of the creation story as it relates to technology, food should feature prominently. It was only day three of the saga when God created the complex system which would provide his creation with food.

In the ancient Near East, food came from the land. And so the story of food begins with the land.

And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.     — Genesis 1:9

Water scared the ancient Israelites. Boats tipped in storms. Sailors suffered shipwrecks. Sometimes fishermen didn’t come home.  The oceans were dangerous. The sea symbolized chaos. (More on this when we talk about fish.) In Genesis the God of Israel reaches into the sea and extracts the land.

From the midst of chaos, God pulls out the source of their livelihood. Like the Lady of Lake offering the Sword of Excalibur to King Arthur, God brings forth the key to survival from the depths of the waters. God gathered the waters and revealed the blessed dry land.

Having unveiled the land, God has set the scene for the creation of life.

And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.  — Genesis 1:11

God doesn’t create oak trees or juniper bushes or even a beautiful rose in this story. Instead, the earth sprouts vegetation, or more literally grass. This is understandable since 40% of the earth’s land area is covered by grassland.

Grasses were the first crop to be cultivated around 7500 BCE. Grasses of some sort form the staple meal for most cultures around the world: wheat, corn, rice, and oats. Grass even accounts for a central element of the modern American diet: sugar. The creation of fruits and vegetables, of course, come after that. 

God extracted the land from the depths of the sea. God created the wide variety of edible vegetation. Before there were people, God created the food necessary for them to live. As soon as humanity enters the story a few verses later in Genesis, we immediately begin to extend God’s natural systems.

Food spoils quickly. So, early food technology focused on preservation.  Archaeological evidence reveals various methods of curing, drying, salting, and smoking in development beginning around 12,000 BCE. In 1810 canning became an option. Pasteurization, developed in 1864, allowed for liquids to be preserved without fermenting.

Eventually, food technology matured from preservation to innovation. The 1966 Science Fiction film Make Room! Make Room! introduced the product Soylent Green, a food replacement made from human remains. You can buy Soylent today, but rest assured there are no human remains involved.

Contemporary food technology enables the 3d printing of foods like chocolate. NASA has even experimented with pizza. Smartphone apps allow people to access unused food, finding deals on restaurant extras or swiping right on leftovers to trade with your neighbor.

Developed societies want the right kind of food in the right quantities at the right time. The ancients and the modern poor just want enough food to stay alive. Everyone is looking for life with different standards of what that means.

In Genesis, God not only created food, he created an incredible system of growth and replication exceeding any human technology yet. God created a mechanism by which food recreates itself in ever increasing quantities without any necessary intervention. Food produces more food with the seeds of the future buried within.

Human technology can’t do this. Everything we produce has a lifespan. Cars wear out, computers slow down, bridges rust and corrode. Even our best technology begins to die as soon as it is born.

But God created a system that self-replicates. In Genesis, God gives birth to life: the complex biological system of cells and and chemical reactions that allow for our very existence, as well as the means for our ongoing sustenance.

Having created light and land, God reveals the ultimate product launch: life.

You have to admire God’s business plan. If his ultimate goal is human life, then he has clearly thought through all the necessary dependencies beforehand. He doesn’t release his flagship product before ensuring the ecosystem is prepared to sustain that product’s success. By the time God creates man in his image, the creation will be flush with everything needed to survive.

We might think of life as a kind of divine technology.

Where does that put our own efforts at creating technology? In early 2017, genetic scientists claimed their work will “lay the foundations for achieving the central goal of synthetic biology: the creation of new life forms and functions.” Creating life forms is an incredible achievement.  It is the stuff of science fiction novels and horror films.

And yet, even if we succeed at creating life forms, we will not have created life. It is as if we built a car, but someone else began the automotive industry. We will have leapt forward in mastering the technology of life, but we will not have created it.

Our technology is always derivative. None of us are true innovators. We are assembling Legos with greater and greater skill, but we haven’t begun to build anything from scratch.

Is this a dismal observation? We are fond of reveling in our creativity. But understood properly, this realization frees us up to accurately participate in the incredible work of technology.

When we have a clear understanding of the magnitude of God’s technological accomplishment, we can see our own efforts in a new light. When we come alongside the technology God has created in order to increase the quality of life or extend opportunities to others, we are participants in extending the amazing system God has created.

Choosing my birthday meal doesn’t change anything measurable about my life (except perhaps my growing waistline). But assembling the food that God has provided for my continued life into a special feast gives me a chance to participate in the process God began. We can iterate, extend, and experiment with the life God has given us in ways that can bring us joy and pleasure.

God gave us Life. We can discover how to live.

2 Shares

3 thoughts on “What Does God Think Of Your Birthday Meal?

  1. Pingback: Why We’re Afraid Our Robots Will Kill Us – allthingsnew.tech

Join the Conversation