The magic of mushrooms is nothing compared to that of God
Food for Thought by Sandy Sutherland
If you are a countryside walker you will have noticed that it has been a particularly good year for spotting fungi. You may even have wondered if you can eat the ones that are spotted.
I have two books on Fungi, a pocket book and a field guide – both give advice on the edibility of over 450 species found in Britain and Europe.
The advice, however, is brief with entries such as: “edible and tasty”, “inedible”, “poisonous”, “highly poisonous”, “poisonous, although rarely fatal”, “poisonous and hallucinogenic”, “poisonous unless correctly cooked”, “potentially poisonous; edible with extreme caution”, “edible when young but might cause gastric upset”, “edible but often infected with insect larvae”, “edible but is easily confused with poisonous species so should be avoided”.
False Death Cap (which apparently tastes delicious) and lookalikes of Funeral Bell come under the last entry! This makes me wonder: who were the first valiant connoisseurs to take frying pans into the woods to sample the potential culinary delights of fungi. Cooking and sampling must have been more nervous than being on MasterChef!
This makes me ask: why did the Creator not give colour codes to every fungus so that poisonous varieties could be safely avoided? This question wrongly assumes that it is the Creator’s fault that poison was part of the creation, which, according to Genesis, was “all very good” in its original state.
In fact, the Genesis account informs us that God went further than a colour code when, with regard to the trees in Eden’s paradise, he specifically spelled it out – Don’t eat of this one! Why not? For you will surely die!
Alas we further read that this specific prohibition not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was not adhered to and that the wages of this tasting was the entering of death, not because of poison but because of man’s disobedience to God’s probationary prohibition. Yet, God in his benevolence immediately gave the remedy for this death in the promise of a Saviour to come. (Genesis 3: 15.)
Interestingly, there has been, in recent years, a revival of the intriguing but controversial doctrine of signatures’ concept (the language of plants) where, historically, there was a belief that the Creator, in his mercy to fallen mankind, left clues as to how to identify plants that could provide remedies for illnesses. Leaves, flowers, tubers that resemble organs of the human body could be used to make cures for corresponding shaped body parts.
This concept is reflective in the common names of many plants: eyebright, woundwort, liverwort, spleenwort, speedwell… to name but a few. Some, however, view this concept merely as a mnemonic useful to people groups that had no written language – not a means to identify a cure but a memory aid to tried and tested remedies.
I wouldn’t like to throw the baby out with the bath water but the whole matter sounds rather subjective. A sliced mushroom may look like an ear to you but it looks more like a kidney to me.
Thankfully, while we must expect a book from God to have revelations that test our finite understanding, there is, when it comes to a cure for death, no confusion. The remedy is clearly prescribed: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3: 16.)
The apostle Paul, in writing to the church at Rome, sums up God’s benevolence: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6: 23.)
- Rev Sandy Sutherland is a retired Free Church minister living in Brora.
