MANNA
(Exodus 16)

The children of Israel left Egypt
(and their slave-status)
behind them
when they crossed Red Sea.
A month and a half later
they were grumbling and complaining
to Moses,
the very one that God had used to rescue them
from the life they were so eager to leave.

Satisfaction and gratitude can be so short lived
as we remember and compare
some bits of past goodness
with some of the present hardship
and open our mouths.

God's response was to provide,
from His abundance,
the food that they would need on a daily basis.
Adequate! Enough!

The Israelites did not know
that the flakes on the ground when the dew disappeared
was God's provision.
They inquired, “Manna?”, meaning “what is it?”
How like us: we tend not to recognize God's provision
when it's delivered in a way we hadn't anticipated.

They gathered the manna.
Some who sought to take more than their need,
discovered that God knew best,
for greed brought maggots and stench
that revealed the disobedient.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray,
“Give us this day our daily bread,”
He was telling us to ask for what we need
and trust the Father's heart
to give us, from His supply,
not more, not less,
but what is deemed sufficient
and in the manner of His choosing!

Grumbling and complaining
is but revelation of the selfishness within our hearts,
and it stinks in the nostrils of the Heavenly Father.

Twila Charles Leichty
September 2009