Tasting GraceSample

An Invitation into Creation The first sentence of the Bible says, “In the beginning God created.” And God called the whole creation “very good.” God loves to create! And he crafted us with the ability to create too. I first began to take delight in my role in creating while I was on the reality show, The Next Food Network Star. I felt as if God and I were creating together. I cooked with him alongside me. Even with the cameras on, I cooked for this audience of one. Working on my own cooking show put me in the role of creator in a different way: I was developing hundreds of recipes to make on Ten Dollar Dinners, as well as creating food for talk shows , writing cookbooks, and creating new recipes for my Associated Press column. My job became creating something—a recipe—that didn’t exist before. And I came to think of that creation as holy work. But while a recipe I write can reach thousands, it will admittedly touch them only in a cursory way. Home cooking, by contrast, is a chance to touch those around our tables directly and deeply. That sheet-pan salmon you make every Friday is more than just dinner; it’s a continuation of what the Lord started. It’s an act of co-creating with God. God gave us the ability to think, to work, and to build so that we would create as he did. The bounty of ingredients he provides for us is astounding. We are meant to use them to bring him glory. I don’t mean we have to cook every day, all the time, or that we need to make it our profession. But when we create something with nature’s ingredients, we are drawn closer to God, even if it’s just to make a simple supper for our families on a Tuesday night. Our creative activity—cooking and otherwise—is one way we thank God for the raw material he provides. Anytime we do something that adds value to our earth, we get a tiny glimpse into what God was doing in early Genesis. I wish I could go back and tell my twenty-something self that even my job in “noncreative” finance had creation at its center. I’ve always been a creator and didn’t know it. So have you. What do you love to create? In what ways does creating bring you closer to God?