REFLECTIONS

Manna

The escape seemed long ago. Freedom finally theirs—freedom from excessive workdays; freedom from unreasonable production demands; freedom from beatings when quotas went unmet. Escape in search of better life.

Harsh conditions made travel difficult though. No one expected the arid heat to suck away their breath, parch their lips, and dry their tongues. No one prepared for land too barren for significant plant life to grow, or for water supplies to become more valuable than gold. Freedom seemed worse than the enslavement they left behind. What had God done to them?

Lost in their memory was how God spared the lives of their firstborn while those around them died. Forgotten was how God parted the Red Sea to spare them from an angered army. Distant from their minds was God’s promise for a land of abundance. And blind to their eyes was food enough to sustain them each day. Manna they called it since they did not know what it was. But manna appeared each morning in quantities enough to feed them for the day.

Much like the Israelites, we also seek escape to a better life too often overlooking God’s guiding hand like Passover was. We forget good fortune from God’s hand like the parting of the Red Sea waters. But each day we pursue a better life than yesterday as if we can make it so. Each day we seek provision for tomorrow as if our own resources are sufficient. But trouble like we never imagined seems to accompany our efforts.

How easily we forget the troubles of the past. How quickly present problems discourage the quest for a better tomorrow. How easily we dismiss today’s miracles before our eyes. How soon we ignore the gifts of today while in search of a trouble-free world. But God does not promise a trouble-free world. God promises to provide what we need to persevere our trouble—manna from God to sustains us, his shield to protects us and his enduring love that secures us.

And shouldn’t we thank our Father for those today?

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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