Sensual Cooking: Touch

Each post in the Sensual Cooking series will focus on one of the senses through which we experience our world.

I hate cottage cheese. Not the taste, but the texture. It also bothers me when my food doesn't have the texture we expect. Tough meat. Cold coffee. Soggy cereal. Random thought: who ever came up with the phrase "one tough cookie"? I like my cookies warm and soft.

Touch can also refer to sensations. When it come to food, fullness is a feeling with which I am quite familiar. The warmth of a hot meal on a cold day. The relief of cold lemonade after hours of yard work (I've read stories that people still do this today). In the book of Revelation, there is the rebuke of a prosperous church in Laodicea. They are chastised for being "lukewarm". 

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  

Revelation 3:15-16

Many people believe that "cold" refers to those who are hateful or evil, while "hot" is equated with love, but this misses the mark. Both cold and hot water are useful. "Lukewarm" here implies the indifference the people of this church had toward their faith. They were wrapped up in themselves instead of dedicated to Christ's mission to love.

This brings to mind another sensation. Hunger. When was the last time you felt truly hungry? Do you even know? We often mistake boredom or worry for hunger. How do you consider the problem of the hungry in our nation? Do you even think about it? Do you care? Are you indifferent? Lukewarm? According to Share Our Strength, "1-in-5 children in America struggles with hunger."  Would you like an opportunity to help? Check out Share Our Strength's "No Kid Hungry" campaign. It will make you feel good to help.