“When you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord.”  Deuteronomy 6:11-12

“Jesus said, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.’”  John 6:32

“Give us this day our daily bread.”  It is harvesting time.  Farmers fill granaries and silos.  Gardeners have been busy canning and freezing, proudly sharing their excess.  Animals are filling their cheeks and bellies and stashing away for winter sustenance.  We stock our freezer from a local meat source.  I know what we will eat all the next week, so I go to the grocery store but once – weekly, long-term bread.  

Manna from heaven was just enough for each day.  We know there are many who live on “daily” bread.  War zones where land is devastated, where humanitarian aid is obstructed, where weather extremes hinder growth. But we don’t have to look far away.  In our own community many live “by the seat of their pants” – our local food shelf busy as ever, our local high school hosting a pantry, a high percentage of students on free and reduced lunch.

We confessed in weekly worship that we doubt we have enough to share. There is an urge to acquire and accumulate, without thought to allocate.  God does not want people to be hungry.  God does not want people to be lonely.  If God cares about the hungry, the lonely, any need, shouldn’t we?   We who have been given a daily thanksgiving feast, must recognize daily that we have enough, a “horn of plenty”, enough to share.  Thanks be to God.

Prayer:  I hope you have the time to look up and sing/hum/pray the hymn “Praise and Thanksgiving” by Albert F. Bayly.  Each verse is a humble hymn of praise … and thanksgiving.  Amen

Verla Olson

Ministries
Teaching Mission Party