Crumbs || Manna from Heaven
I know that you’re three months into your low-carb New Year's Resolution, but let’s talk about bread.
Look there is an entire food group that is dedicated to carbs! I Googled “health benefits of bread.” There are [some] benefits to it, so don’t hate me from tempting you to get the baguette from Panera instead of the apple.
Bread is a complex carbohydrate. Complex carbohydrates (according to this):
are our body's’ main source of energy
help our body’s systems (like our brain and nervous system) functionality, and
are necessary to a balanced diet.
———————————————
You know the one thing I love more than bread (shout out to Martin’s potato rolls!)? Jesus.
Isn’t Jesus a little like a complex carbohydrate? Jesus:
is our spiritual source of energy
helps our faith’s functionality, and
is necessary for a full, purpose-driven life.
The concept of #carbsandJesus started before Christ.
Here’s the short version of how we go to where we are at...God frees the Israelites from slavery. At the end Exodus 14, God utilizes Moses to part the Red Sea and drown the Egyptians. By the end of Exodus 15, these “free” people are in the trekking through the wilderness drinking gross water. So then we get to Exodus 16. The people aren’t happy! So unhappy, that they tell Moses they would rather go back to being slaves (what??). And this is how the Lord replies:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
--Exodus 16:4-5
God’s reaction to the grumbling was, “I’ll make it rain carbohydrates. Let chocolate croissants from Starbucks and onion rolls from Arby’s fall down on this earth.” Okay, didn’t go quite like that…
God’s reaction to the grumbling was to provide. God’s people were starving, God’s people’s needs were met.
But God’s provision was conditional. Read everything after the raining carbs:
“The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
The condition was that they only gather what was needed. They weren’t to go out at gather ciabatta rolls, italian herb and cheese footlongs from Subway, and some Jersey bagels. They were to gather enough for survival. But why (#carbload)?
If they hoarded all the goods, why did they need God? If each day they came back for their “daily bread” (not to take away from a future blog), they were learning to depend on God.
So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today.
--Matthews 6:34
This lenten season, let us feast on manna from heaven. Let us seek daily the One we need. Let us seek daily the source of our energy, the fuel to our functionality, and the necessity of life.
