“Jack Sprat could eat no fat [or juicy hamburgers]”

Like the Mother Goose character “Jack Sprat,” I am on a low-fat diet. Thus you’d think I would have been thrilled this week when I heard that scientists had produced the world’s first lab-grown burger, synthetic strips of lean muscle germinated from cow stem cells and fashioned into a patty. One food expert said it was “close to meat, but not juicy.” Another tester said it was “chewy and tasteless.” And isn’t that an apt description of man’s efforts to improve on God’s creation! Chewy and tasteless!

What was wrong with the $350,000 stem-burger? No fat. And, as everyone knows, the flavor is in the fat—the more “marbled” a piece of meat, the better it tastes. One day, Isaiah says, The Lord of Hosts will serve His people a feast of “fat things full of marrow,” meaning, rich food and choice meats (Is. 25:6). John says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb” when we will exchange the dry “chewy and tasteless” man-made things of earth for God’s “feast of fat things.” And I am quite sure, though juicy burgers may be on the menu, it won’t be about the food!