I was walking fast because I was worried about my baby turning into an Icy Pole.
I was also in a rush to get home to make a toasted cheese and baked bean toasty/jaffle. I was in no doubt thinking very hard about what herbs to add to my toasties, when I almost had a footpath collision.
I was walking north, the others walking east, and for some reason we both stepped out into each other's way at the same time. Our visibility of each other was blocked by the beautiful, yet evidently impractical, high fence of a church.
If in fact we had collided, my baby, in her bright orange baby sling, and I would have been the sole casualties. The other lady/man would have been unharmed because even I can't inflict injury onto a dead person.
So we almost crashed into a coffin. It was being carried by two pole bearers on either end, but they would have been fine. I was heading for a crash into the middle of the coffin.
It shook me up. Not sure if it was the thought of having to later answer my daughter's questions as to the reason of her flat head. 'Honey, it's just the time we both had a collision with a coffin'. Or the thought of a person being buried with an imprint of my daughter's head on the side of their coffin!
But to be honest it wasn't either of those thoughts that shook my up the most. It was the fact that death had invaded the footpath of the picturesque Melbourne street. Death had entered my world of heritage buildings, cobblestone streets and baked beans oozing out of toast. I'm just not comfortable with death showing up when least expected and very much uninvited.
Omitting the Spiritual Dimension
For many of us it is easy to live in the here and the now. Most of the time spirituality is off our radar. Except perhaps if we have a disturbing encounter with a coffin, and then we might think about issues of heaven, hell and God.
But many Australians are materialistic. To the Materialist, the physical world is all there is. But Christians should not be Materialists. For us, there is, thankfully, more than the physical world.
Even though I spend most of my time forgetting about the spiritual dimension to life (I'm usually thinking about insignificant things), I do have this tendency to live like death isn't imminent and that the spiritual world is insignificant, not just invisible.
Now I don't think thinking like this is completely wrong. A functioning society is important. I do have to spend a lot of time planning about… whether there's petrol in our car…. However, it is important to spend time thinking, talking and acting on the other dimension of life. The spiritual, eternal dimension to our reality.
The other side
I spent a morning last week at a SIDS and Kids support group. It's not for the faint hearted; all the parents there had lost a baby or child. We sat on plastic chairs in a circle. To my left was a collage of babies and children who had died for a variety of reasons. A few of the group members mentioned how they feel much more part of the world of the dead rather than the living.
I get this. All the people in the group live with anxiety, and feel a constant pain that life is fragile and short. When living like this, people seem to be drawn towards spirituality. But the majority of people that cross my life don't seem to live like this.
Towards spiritualising life
I can think of no better example of my one dimensional life than MasterChef. This show is a celebration of food and talents revolving around how to prepare food beautifully and perfectly. It is about the aesthetics of food. How it tastes, how it looks, how well it is made. I like MasterChef because I like food and cooking.
A bit like me, MasterChef has a problem with the other dimension. If we take on the MasterChef philosophy of food we become fully materialistic, departing far from Christian theism.
MasterChef fails to take us further than the physical world. But to the Christian, food is not simply about hedonism and talented cooks. It is more. The theology of food should lead us to a greater understanding of God and his purpose for humanity.
Do we learn more about God and ourselves from dissecting and eating a delicate basil panna cotta? Barely. I guess we have to ponder and find answers for a few questions bigger than whether the panna cotta has the right wiggle to it.
We need to ask, did God create food for pleasure? If food is simply for pleasure, then overeating is acceptable. Or does enjoying food show us God's goodness and love by creating the sensation of pleasure? Is food predominately for nourishment? If so, all the members of the household eating separately in front of their TV is fine. Or did God create food for fellowship? Is food's purpose predominately about God's provision for humanity? Or our dependence on him – for rain, sun…? But what about the starving? Every time we eat, are we receiving a blessing? Our use of food may be a very explicit display of our understanding of God. It may even show us our sins.
I wish MasterChef could dig deeper and point us viewers towards a more meaningful understanding of food. If only they could sit around and taste the gorgeous rabbit stew or grilled fish and after critiquing the food remember how the little feast is a precursor to a greater one. The eternal feast.
Indeed there's more food at the end than there was at the beginning. It's a pointer to the fulfilment of God's promise: that one day we will feast forever in his presence. There will be no pain, sorrow and despair. I wish my life was able to display more of a smash of the spiritual and material worlds.
Danielle and Daniel Stott are Bible College graduates who live on the Gold Coast. Daniel is training to be a teacher and Danielle is caring for their toddler daughter and one on the way.
Danielle and Daniel's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/d-and-d-stott.html
