Manna"

"Manna from Heaven"  photo by Caris Cerdwyn, copyright 2011, All rights reserved

What was that flaky stuff that fell every day in the wilderness, giving the Israelites food enough for the day?  I wasn't there, so I cannot guess what it may have been.  Some give it scientific possibilities.  This is from the far reaches of my memory, so don't quote me on this, but somewhere I think (how scholarly of me!) I read that it might have been the excrement of a certain worm that lived in that region.  And that worm or insect was most active during the night hours, and so the manna was present in the mornings.  I sometimes don't want to know the answers...I prefer to simply think of it as providence.  God's hand, and a miracle.  Though if indeed it was the excrement of a worm, I must say that I can't blame them for bitterly complaining!  But who am I to make any judgment of them or of God in the process?  I do enough of my own complaining.  Of course I offer lots of gratitude these days.  There is much to be thankful for.  But I'm human, and sometimes things feel really hard. 

The manna God provides for me is found in the simple and ordinary everyday miracles.  The blood flowing beneath my skin.  The great gift of clean, running water.  Hot and cold most days.  (We lost our water heater in the recent flooding, so for a couple of days it was only cold!  Those puppies are expensive to buy and have installed these days.  Double what it was back in the flood of 2006.  But thankfully our plumber, who is the best of the best, had it here and installed within hours.  No long waits or excuses.  Great, honest fellow who does his job well, and is fair about the price of things.)   

God provides, and it is enough.  And I believe this comes more deeply true with each passing day for me.  As I have relinquished and surrendered my resentments, and can honestly say "No one owes me anything," I am finding that there is enough.  God provides enough, and that doesn't mean that life doesn't have it's struggles and difficulties, but it does mean that there is a gift in it all, when I stop to find it. 

There is provision in ways we sometimes do not expect.  But somehow we live each day, and somehow, even in the losses and the griefs, when people we once looked up to, turn out to be cowardly, when institutions disappoint us, when we disappoint ourselves.  Even in the midst of it all, there is manna.  It takes wide opened eyes, a wide open heart, and gratitude for the gathering, gratitude for the taste, the aroma, the feel, the sight, the sound (which may be a quiet whisper) of the gift of that manna.