Everyday matters to God.  And our everyday matters matter to God as well.  There is a story from the time of Moses in the Old Testament that illustrates this.  God had already sent Moses to the people of Israel to lead them out of slavery in Egypt to a new life in a promised land.  At this point, they had left Egypt, but they were still in the desert wilderness, moving day by day to make the vision of the promised land into a reality. Well in the desert, they began to run out of food, so God provided for their daily needs by sending bread from heaven, called manna.

God is always sending us something to eat. Day by day.  Everyday matters. God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives — some bread, some love, some breath, some wine — all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. God gives us enough for today — it is our daily bread.

Jesus is our daily bread.

There is a story in John chapter 6 about Jesus feeding five thousand hungry people in the wilderness. After he fed them, they stuck to him like glue. The miracle of the loaves that were multiplied re minded them of the manna stories they had heard and they thought they had their very own Moses to work miracles for them. Testing their premise, they asked Jesus to prove himself by producing bread from heaven on the spot. They wanted the butter-crust loaves, but he knew they needed more than that, so he gave them himself instead. 

They wanted food to eat, not a relationship with this ordinary looking man. He honored their hunger even as he corrected them. It was not Moses who gave it to them, he explained. It was God who gave it and God who gives the true bread from heaven, the bread that gives life to the world.

“Give us this bread always,” they said, and that is when he let them know that they were looking at it. “I am the bread of life,” he told them.

Jesus is God’s manna for us. He is the one who reminds us that everyday matters and that we live because God provides not what we want, necessarily, but exactly what we need: some bread, some love, some breath, some wine; all found in a relationship with the ordinary looking man, who comes from heaven to bring life to the world. 

Prayer:  Lord, teach me about everyday matters, especially to learn to depend on you and acknowledge your daily provisions for my life. Forgive me Lord for being so easily convinced that I can provide for myself, for acting like I don’t need you in my life. As we look into the upcoming year with hope for what you want to accomplish through us, give us the sustaining power of your holy spirit. Be our daily bread, Lord.