Does God Eat?

So philosophers, theologians, and pontificators, my daughter asks my wife this question. See what you think.

Mom, "Does God Eat?" (LOL priceless)

Our children have a way of challenging our theology and sometimes making us question what we believe and why.  A NECESSARY PRACTICE FOR ALL PEOPLE.  Especially for people of the Christian faith.  So the latest question that makes us question what we believe about God is the one my daughter asked my wife.  "Does God Eat".  I love this question (maybe because I love my little girl so much)  First, because it reminds us of the simple innocence of a child's heart as they seek to know God.  Secondly, after we get over the cuteness of childlike simplicity, it makes us consider with more depth how God actually sustains Himself.  We, humans, must eat to sustain ourselves.  If we don't eat, we whither away and we die.

In contrast God needs NO sustenance.  There is NOTHING He needs at anytime that He does not have presently, within Himself.  He is the giver of life and sustenance  because He alone has life and sustenance to give.  In fact, isn't this the dilemma of humankind in our quest to be fulfilled.  We consistently seek to be our own source of sustenance, power, and energy (in essence attempting to BE our own gods) or we seek to find those sources of sustenance, power, and energy in things outside of His purposes.  Ultimately, though, we run out of energy and need more sustenance.

But, there is more.  When we say there is nothing God needs that is exactly true.  He needs no thing from us; not even our worship.  He does not feed off of it.  In fact, God is equally as confident in His worth whether we worship (ascribe worth) Him or not.  However, even while God does not need our worship, He allows us to imitate Him as sustainer by allowing us to give to Him.  It's like when my children give me some of their food.  I bought the food so technically, it's my food and they don't have anything to give me except what I give them. I am made happy (blessed) by the idea that they want to give back to me.  But if they choose not to give what I have given them, it is well within my means to get my satisfaction for food somewhere else. In his address to the Athenian philosophers the Apostle Paul said it this way,

 "24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for 'In him we live and move and have our being...'"

 So, in my opinion God does NOT eat. He is totally satisfied in every way within Himself.

This is the God we serve.  And since He has everything He needs, We can have everything we need.  Perhaps the question is then, Have we eaten from the God who satisfies?

Grace and Peace