The Bread of Angels
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Deuteronomy 8:2-4
Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
Psalm 78:23-25
Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;
he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.
Men ate the bread of angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat.
Manna: the food miraculously supplied to the Israelites in the wilderness; any sudden or unexpected help, advantage, or aid to success; divine or spiritual food.
This topic is a little challenging for me to write about because I don’t want the focus to be on me or my family but rather on God. Yet to describe our feasting on manna, I must share a bit of the background story.
Like so many others we have struggled over the last couple of years due to job changes and the increasingly dire economic situation in our country. We’ve made some pretty dramatic changes in our lifestyle. Keep in mind we weren’t by any stretch of the imagination extravagant people! I’m talking we’ve gotten down to bare bones, what do we absolutely need to survive mode!
Through all of this time we have felt the hand of God upon us. Each month we have had exactly enough to pay the bills and meet our other financial obligations. Every time an anticipated extra expense would be necessary – car inspections that would yield the bad news of costly repairs, appliances that make funny sounds yet keep on running, etc. we are the beneficiaries of God’s manna.
Our cars have not broken down (a miracle in and of itself). Our cupboards are not bare, though a bit sparser. We have adequate clothing and all the other necessities we need. Heck, we still have cable tv! Why do I share this with you? Well, this is not about how good and strong we are in our faith and so God is “rewarding” us. This has been about our trusting God that He will provide for us. There is a subtle difference.
The other day my husband’s car needed to be inspected. He asked me what he should do if the repair bill ended up being more than a hundred dollars or so. We decided how we’d pay for it and waited for the call. The car passed with flying colors and that is when my husband exclaimed that “It’s like manna in the desert!”
I give my husband the credit here because it is his faithfulness and his absolute dependence upon God and his provisions that have sustained us. We have both grown in our faith so much over the past months. We have had to humble ourselves before God, proclaiming and acknowledging him as our source of life.
We’ve put aside pride and exchanged it for abject humility at being loved and cared about so much by a God who provides everything, absolutely everything, we need.Are we more deserving than others who may not have fared so well? I don’t think that’s what is in play here at all! I think God intends us to share our story and our message. Not the story and message of job loss and financial challenge – the story of God’s provision and sustenance in spite of and throughout it all.
God is the bread of life. He will sustain you and provide for you-wherever you are and whatever you need. My prayer today is that you feast upon the bread of angels. And that you humble yourself before God because of his great mercy and love.
Mary
