So, the new by-word in nutrition is ‘nutrient-dense.’ I remember reading a list a number of years ago of the top 10 foods for good health. The nutrient dense list has some overlap, but also a surprise or two. The idea behind nutrient dense food is rather like getting the most bang for your buck...except the most bang for your food intake.
These made the top-10: Salmon, Kale, Seaweed, Garlic, Shellfish, Potatoes, Liver, Sardines, Blueberries, and Egg Yolks. I bet potatoes surprised you. They’ve been bad-mouthed for too long, I think. Obviously, shellfish has it’s drawbacks where mercury or other ocean contaminants are involved...and liver, which traps toxins in a body, may be questionable. Sardines and seaweed have rarely made the popular list. Regardless, when it comes to the most nutrients packed into food, these are the heroes.
I was thinking this morning about density in the Spirit. Our spiritual nutrition can become fluffy and rather fly-by-night as we grab the occasional fast-food snack on the run. We can get by for awhile ‘eating’ this way, but soon our energy flags and we begin feeling not quite right. We think back and realize we’ve hardly spent any quality time with the Lord.
That happened to me this morning. As I finally sank, with a sigh and a pillow, into my prayer chair on the deck and closed my eyes, abandoned to Him, it was like immersing myself in a nutrient-rich bath in His Spirit...fragrant and soothing, dense with His Presence. I realized how dry I’d become in such a short time, moving about...flitting from here to there, as if I could keep going with only old, rotting food to sustain me.
There was a reason God only gave the Israelites enough Manna for each day. Those who tried to keep it for the next, found it rotted. He knows of what we are made...and what we need to sustain the life He’s given us. Real life, not the shadow to which we sometimes attribute the the name, is what He wants for us. Let’s take a look at our diets and choose to immerse ourselves, within and without, in the nutrient-dense spiritual food He supplies.
At the cross, Jesus provided for us His full Shalom of body, soul, and spirit: His body, the Manna for our health, wholeness, and provision of every kind; His blood for our forgiveness, now and for eternity. Let’s be sure to seek and receive His gift of Manna, the physically and spiritually dense bread🥖 of life, by resting in Him daily, not just on a snack and go basis.
