Good morning,
I pray day finds you well.
Laurie and I went camping last week...
We had a wonderful time and we were able to decompress and relax. We walked and talked. We paddled our canoe and looked into the deep blue. We danced under the stars, thank God there were no other cars.
We ate great food, with plenty of leftovers. It was a conversation about leftovers that became the topic of this bread.
During the conversation God reminded me that there was a time when leftovers were not a thing. They had been a thing, but then they weren't. Did this cause a problem, oh yes, this became a problem.
God reminded me of the Exodus, you know when Moses had a big stick and parted the sea. Moses and his merry band of Hebrews had escaped the Egyptians only to find themselves in a desert. Do you know what grows in a desert? Not much, sand mostly.
The merry band of Hebrews weren't so merry anymore. In fact, they were pretty darn miserable, so miserable that they wanted to go back to those mean Egyptians! They had sand in their hair and nothing in their bellies. They did have grumbly words for Moses though.
Moses talked to God. God told Moses, "Don't worry I've got this."
The next morning Manna started falling from the sky! Why do we call it Manna you ask? That is a wonderful question. We call it Manna because it means "What's this?"
God had provided camp food for the Hebrews. They hadn't gone camping in like 400 years, after all they had been, up to a few days ago, slaves. They were good at making bricks and pyramids and sphinx's and stuff like that, but they hadn't gone camping in a long, long time. So they didn't know what camp food was. But it tasted good!
The problem with Manna was that it only lasted one day. If you tried to eat it the next day you found out pretty fast that it had rotted. Anybody that had ever eaten camp food that had gone bad knows that it isn't good and things just get worse from there. Nobody wants to hang out with you when you've eaten camp food that has gone bad. So the Hebrews were forced to only take what they needed for the day, and then get up the next morning and collect more Manna.
They grumbled about this and even started to think about how good leftovers were. They had forgotten that they had complained about leftovers when they had forgotten about camping. Suddenly, wanting leftovers were the new rage!
Well eventually, the Hebrews crossed a river and entered into the land of milk and honey. It only took 40-years.
I have it on good authority that after 39-years and 9-months Moses finally listened to his wife and asked for directions.
As Laurie and I conversed over our leftovers, I got to thinking, and of course that leads to pondering.
How cool would life be to live a Manna life.
- To not collect stuff, which seems to lead to hoarding, just in case I might need it tomorrow.
- To be new and renewed everyday.
- To take what God gives me and not want more.
- To live at peace and realize that prosperity is not equal to collecting and hoarding wealth.
- To be one with God.
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