Today we read the story of the desert wanderings of the Israelites. They were grumpy. Talk about hard to please. They had just witness the greatest act of victory known to man, where Pharaoh's army was thrown into the sea; they had escaped slavery relatively unscathed; they didn't even break a sweat. All they had to do was watch God unfold his victory before them.
They were led through the desert by a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
They had every reason to be in awe, enthusiastic, completely blown away. They had seen enough amazing things to last a life time; and yet they were grumpy and unsatisfied.
Go figure!
Instead of focusing on what went right, what beauty they saw before their eyes, what amazing events that took place, all they could see was what was missing. A 1000 reasons to rejoice and they settle on the one reason to be grumpy.
Go figure!
And Yet God in His infinite mercy gives them another reason to be blown away, in awe.
He sends the quail by night and the bread by day. Why? So that they "might know that I, the Lord, am your God."
He gives them direct evidence of his ever abiding presence, the best evidence. He passes judgment, gives adjudication on his mercy.
The key to the manna, the bread God sends like rain, was that the Israelites were told that they could only take just enough for the day, only a daily portion. He gave them just enough, each day.
This is how God continually gives and proves himself; he gives us just enough. We may see a 1000 things we do not have, or a 1000 reasons why we need more but what God simply asks us to remember is, "do have just enough?"
Just enough for the day!
We may not have everything we want, but do we have just enough?
If we were asked to give an affidavit in the court of law, I believe each of us could testify that in deed we do have just enough each day. This is proof enough to get God off the hook, give Him the acquittal He deserves, for the evidence is in His favor, without a reasonable doubt, He has done what He has promised and provides us with just enough, our daily portion.
God isn't on trial, we are. The problem isn't God's provisions but rather our expectations.
When we become believers, we have to embrace the assumption of risk, that is we know the danger of believing that is God promises to give us just enough for the day, not too much, not too little, but always just enough.
We just have recognize the manna set before us, and truly our desires shall be satisfied.
Today, we ask, what is it that is just enough. Truly, we see then the manna from above.
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