I hear a lot of complaint about the need to keep eating food to sustain ourselves, to drink water to sustain ourselves, to need sleep to sustain ourselves.
I have not fully understood why we should complain so much about it, particularly those of us who can choose how, and when, to satisfy these needs. We can pick what we eat to some extent, and make the need be fulfilled in a way that pleases us (even if just a little). It seems like our ungratefulness that gets frustrated and impatient with the continued need to fulfill what our bodies need.
To me, it is a lovely thing that we should continue to need to do things. Of course it bothers me if I need to do something else (or tell myself I need to), and the need for food, drink, or sleep gets in the way of that. But that is a passing frustration that I easily realise is kind of silly. I also do enjoy to eat, so it's not so hard for me. It's odd to me that one wouldn't enjoy eating; what would be difficult to deal with is wanting to eat and not being able to.
In the need of my body, I get a sense of God's love- He made us need food, and we can sate it in a pleasurable way. Food can be good. It can also not be good, which is interesting in itself as I find out what I like and don't like, and then get to wonder why I don't like something.
Sleeping is good (as long as it works well enough) because of rest and peacefulness in that. It is nice to have seasons within a day where different things have to happen, and seasons within a year, when things are more slow, and then they move faster (as they might in more of an agrarian society).
Thirst is lovely to quench, if you can quench it. I actually love to feel thirsty as long as I can sate it because how it feels when I've drunk water after that is so, so good! I actually am frustrated in recent years that I don't usually feel actually thirsty, but just know I ought to drink because I can see the signs of slight dehydration (getting a bit tired and lethargic is one way I can sense it happening).
The other aspect of God's love in this is that He did give the means to fulfill these needs. The Fall, I believe, takes away our ability to sate these God-given needs. We are creatures that are made to enjoy a plethora of different sensations, both bodily and spiritual (by which I mean anything non-bodily, including intellectual 'gratification' as I'd call it). God gave the means by making us fit in this world in such a way that we can get answers, and we can get what we need, out of the created order. The created order affirms our neediness, and fulfills it, and that is God's love constantly giving over and over, as we are filled, get hungry again, eat again, and are content again.
The constant feeling over and over of contentment, of being re-satisfied, is very pleasant when one s not too cynical to appreciate it.
I am hoping I can learn to appreciate these things again, instead of living in a Scrooge-ish illusory world of hatefulness; believing that God is holding out on me.
