One of my earliest memories is of sitting on the kitchen counter watching my mom cook. The kitchen has always been the main room in our house where people tend to congregate. Everyone comes to the kitchen to find food and drinks (or just to scan the fridge for no apparent reason). We take inventory of the groceries and add items to the seemingly endless shopping list. We practice adding and subtracting fractions while thumbing through cookbooks together. We learn and try and mess up … a lot. We talk about curious topics and even important issues while stirring a pot, chopping veggies or unloading the dishwasher. The kitchen is where life happens in our home.

Speaking of which, food is an important metaphor in the Bible, as well. Let’s look at Isaiah 55:1-6 and imagine being invited to linger a while in the Lord’s kitchen as Isaiah shares these five insights:

·    Come: When you are thirsty for more in life – for the kinds of things that money can’t buy – enter the Lord’s kitchen for a buffet spread of his compassion, peace and joy.
·    Listen: What’s the point in having a cookbook if you don’t follow the directions? God’s instructions are for your best interests, so perk up your ears to him.
·    Pay attention: Be mindful of how you feed your soul; there’s a lot of junk out there that is tempting to consume, but God’s Word is nourishing and fulfilling.
·    Seek: We can think of the kitchen as merely a place to prepare food, or we can look for opportunities to do life together. He’s waiting for you to climb up on the counter like a small child and spend time with him.
·    Pray: You are never underfoot in God’s kitchen. He wants you to talk to him about your day, your triumphs, your worries, your dreams.

The kitchen may be the focal point of our homes, but I think what Isaiah 55 is trying to remind us is that God wants to be the focal point of our hearts. Like a child foraging in the fridge, when we hunger and thirst for something that can’t be found in the cupboard, we should turn to him to satisfy our spirits.

As Jesus once said to a woman drawing water from a well: “’Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:13-14, ESV). Are you satisfied with what the world has to offer, or are you thirsty for more?