What can we learn from the Garden of Eden? Christians have a great tradition of exploring the deep truths in the book of Genesis. There are many sacred truths revealed there such as: 1) All life comes from God 2) God is the Creator of everything 3) Everything God created is good. God created a beautiful place and called it the Garden of Eden, where the first humans lived. This was a place of non-violence, peace and harmony. The animals were at peace. They did not hurt each other, nor did they hurt human beings. Humans did not hurt each other and they did not hurt the animals. The first humans experienced sexual purity. They were not slaves to disordered sexual desires. Their emotions, their passions, were well-balanced. Everything in humans was in good working order. Nothing in the human experience was disordered. The first humans were not obsessed with seeking pleasure. Pleasure was not at the top of their priority list. They experienced reasonable and holy pleasures. God was enough. They enjoyed the presence of God and the union they experienced with God. The food they ate in Eden was a plant diet (See Genesis 1:29). They enjoyed the food God provided for them in a holy way. They certainly were not obsessed with their palates (or the pleasure of their food). There is a holiness to food and to how we enjoy it. We can enjoy it in a way that unites us to God (in a more pure way). Every living being in Eden experienced the beauty and goodness of God, and diet as it should be experienced. This was God's plan from the very beginning. He wants us to experience holy relationships and holy food for His holy purposes.

Someone once shared with me that in some parts of the world all that a child has to eat in one day is one bowl of rice. For that child this bowl of rice means everything. It is his or her daily sustenance. Without it he or she would probably suffer severe health problems or starve to death. In solidarity with the hungry in the world I have pledged to prayerfully eat my daily whole food plant-based meals, with less emphasis on the taste of my food and more emphasis on prayer and unity with the poor and hungry in the world. I started this a week ago and I have already experienced a deeper sense of self-control and purity. I can only describe my eating as holy. This is a first in my life. I have never experienced eating as pure and holy as I have this past week. And it was delicious too (a holy delicious). I pray and hope that you will join me as you begin or continue your whole food plant-based diet. But let's not stop there. Let's help those who are hungry in our city and/or let's begin or continue to send in those monthly gifts to those wonderful organizations that feed the poor in the world today. ~John L. Banda