Manna and Trusting God

In the desert, the Israelites were given manna to eat. Each day, they had to collect what they needed for that day, except for the day before the Sabbath, when they were to collect what they needed for the Sabbath as well. They could not try to collect for more than one day or save what they had collected. Any manna left over at the end of the day went bad. The only exception to this was the Sabbath, when the manna would miraculously last for two days.

Talk about an exercising in trusting God. They were compliant reliant on God providing what they needed.

To put it in perspective, imagine if you only had enough food in your house for today. And if you tried to stock your pantries with food for beyond one day, it went mouldy. Or imagine that you only had enough money for today. No savings, no extra money in the bank account and no retirement plans. Scary, isn’t it?

In today’s western world, we like to make plans. We don’t just fill our cupboards and refrigerators with food for one day. Often we have enough food there to keep us going for a month. We start to stress when our money runs low or we’re not sure what our next source of income will be or we don’t know if we can survive through retirement.

Now there’s nothing wrong with planning. In today’s world, we need do at least some planning. But most of us are pretty good with planning. Well at least, we do a very good job at worrying about the future. But we’re not so good with trusting God.

Maybe we need to do a little less worrying and a little more trusting. Maybe we need to stop being so anxious over problems that aren’t even here yet. Maybe we need to start enjoying what God provides us with, instead of wanting to hoard it for a rainy day. And maybe we need to spend a lot more time being thankful for each and every day that we have what we need for that day. Because for today at least, that’s all we really need.

(Image details: The Gathering of the Manna at the Musée de la Chartreuse. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Image is in the public domain)