by Christine Sine
I have just finished reading Lisa Graham McMinn’s new book To the Table: A Spirituality of Food, Farming and Community. This is a book well worth reading. Through the telling of stories, the sharing of recipes and the relating of her own personal journey from college professor to CSA owner, Lisa encourages us to head for our gardens, farmers markets and dining tables to learn to eat more intentionally and more prayerfully.
As a person who loves both gardening and hospitality, this book really spoke to me. It made me realize how much more I have to learn though. It is well researched and provides a rich foundation of facts about food and the systems that produce it. With its plethora of well thought out questions and reflections it is ideal for small groups, bible studies and personal reading.
My favourite quote:
Reflecting God’s image in the kitchen requires us to stop thinking about food only as body fuel and see it as one of God’s primary ways to express divine provision. And we can’t make the trade without a reverence for creation….. If food is one of God’s most abiding and daily love languages, then preparing food puts us smack dab in the center of a deeply spiritual and physical process that begins and ends in the arms of God. Once we see food as God’s loving, tangible provision, we find it in snap peas, in the freezer, the onions in the cellar, and the barley in the pantry. Working with tangible expressions of god’s love becomes holy work, good work. (pp 45, 46)