Nothing brings joy quite like food. As Scripture makes clear, food brightens the countenance (1 Sam. 14:27), revives the spirit (1 Sam. 30:12), strengthens the heart (Ps. 104:15), and signifies God’s favor (Ps. 23:5; Lk. 1:53). Where food is, rejoicing often follows (Deut. 12:7), and our daily need for food reminds us of our daily need for God, who satisfies us by opening His hand and granting us our food at the proper time (Ps. 145:15-16; Matt. 6:11). Even at the metabolic level, food helps us understand that joy is not simply a fleeting feeling but rather a settled and lasting disposition, since our food becomes part of us by making up the very composition of our bodies.

It should come as no surprise, then, that God uses food to depict the settled and lasting joy of His salvation. When God saves the Israelites from Egypt, He commemorates this event with a perpetual meal, the Passover (Ex. 12:14). And the night before Jesus gives His life for the sins of the world, He too commemorates His redemption with the supreme Passover meal, the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:17-30; 1 Cor. 11:23-29).

Then, at the end of history, the joy of heaven itself finds expression through food in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9), which will include eating fruit from the Tree of Life that brings joyful healing to the nations (Rev. 22:2).

So joy and food go together, and nowhere is this more true than at Advent, a season wherein we not only share joyful meals together but also commemorate the birth of Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6). Jesus was born to be the very Bread from heaven so that everyone who eats of Him will have eternal life and no longer hunger nor thirst (John 6:35, 40).

As if to highlight that Jesus is this Bread, Luke’s Gospel mentions that Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the “House of Bread” (Luke 2:4; cf. Mic. 5:2) and that He is laid in a manger, a literal feeding trough (Luke 2:7). The message is unmistakable: Jesus came to be our Food, the Food from heaven that nourishes us to eternal life. And just as all our food has to die so that we may partake of it and live, Jesus had to die for our sins so that we may partake of Him through faith and live forever (John 6:51; Rom. 5:8; Gal. 2:20).

So in this Advent season, and in every meal we enjoy, let us praise God the Father that He, through His Holy Spirit, has sent us His Son to be our true food and true drink, to die so that we may eat His flesh, drink His blood, and thus live with Him forever (John 6:55-56).

He alone is our divine Food that sustains us in His joy in this difficult time, a time wherein many find themselves eating alone, or not eating at all. For many of us, He’s been our only Source of joy throughout the painful struggles of this year.

In view of these struggles, let us as Christ’s Body continue to minister with glad and generous hearts (Acts 2:46), never ceasing to invite others to join us at His table, to partake of Him through faith, and to delight with us not only in the physical food that we readily share, but also in “the richest of foods”: the Word that comes from the very mouth of God (Is. 55:2; Matt. 4:4).