Leviticus 11:20-25: a reflection

20“‘All flying insects that walk on all fours are an abomination to you. 21Yet you may eat these: of all winged creeping things that go on all fours, which have long, jointed legs for hopping on the earth. 22Even of these you may eat: any kind of locust, any kind of katydid, any kind of cricket, and any kind of grasshopper. 23But all winged creeping things which have four feet are an abomination to you. 24“‘By these you will become unclean: whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening. 25Whoever carries any part of their carcass shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening.

These are dietary rules, minute distinctions about which insects may be eaten and which are unclean, the kind of detail we skim without a thought. But consider what such laws did to daily life. Every meal, every encounter with food, required Israel to stop and discern, to distinguish clean from unclean, to be mindful of what they took in. The rules turned the most ordinary act, eating, into a constant, practiced attentiveness.

Notice the effect of that. Whatever the specific reasons for the distinctions, the daily practice of them kept the people continually aware that they belonged to God and were set apart for him. They could not eat, could not do the most basic thing, without being reminded, this is who we are; we are the LORD's, called to be holy in even this. Ordinary life was woven through with reminders of their identity.

There is something to take from that, even though we are not under these food laws. God cares about the whole of life, not just the obviously religious parts, and he can use the most ordinary things, meals, work, routines, to keep us mindful that we belong to him. The invitation is to bring that kind of attentiveness into your own ordinary days, to let eating, working, and living be woven through with the awareness that you are the Lord's, set apart for him, in even the small and daily things. Let the ordinary remind you whose you are.

Lord, you wove reminders of belonging to you through the most ordinary acts of daily life, even eating. Help me bring that attentiveness into my own ordinary days, to remember in my meals, my work, my routines, that I am yours, set apart for you. Let the small and daily things keep me mindful of whose I am.