Good morning…

God held up a universal mirror through the words of Henri Nouwen yesterday. On 5.6.16, Nouwen’s morning meditation touched our truth: “As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say: ‘There’s not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency,’ or ‘There’s not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I’d better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it’ or ‘There’s not enough love to give to everybody, so I’d better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me.’ This is a scarcity mentality. It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won’t have enough to survive. The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.”

The God of abundance generously feeds our every need, moment by moment. As we hit the hungers of everyday life, we recall the tangible lesson learned by our ancestors in the wilderness. In Exodus 16:13-21 (NIV) we read: …in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” (“What is it?” is the definition of “manna.”) For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.

God’s morning manna is enough to sustain us one day at a time. When our “fear of not having enough” overrides our “trust that God will provide,” we gather more, we keep more, hoard more. Paying less and less attention to God, our fear trumps our trust. The LORD’s daily bread, given to us to freely share, ends up rotting and smelling in our clenched fists. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD, Deuteronomy 8:3 (NLT).

Give us today our daily bread, Matthew 6:11,

Sue