Manna In My Purse

Today I posted that I am "thankful that God always knows what I need and when I need it".  I have always known my God to be ever-present and always our provider.  I don't take it for granted but it has been a very prominent reality in my life, both growing up and now raising my own family.  There have been countless times in my life where I was very aware that God was working things behind the scenes on my behalf, whether it was day-to-day meals, making sure the gas money worked out just right (and I mean, down to the penny under the seat of the car) or even amazing things like random extra finances in December to make sure there were gifts under the tree.  Everything-- from what was needed to things that were just meaningful extras, He has always provided!

As an adult, raising my own kids now and doing my own financial planning, I can often think back to my own parents, raising my sisters and I, through the good times and what, I realize now, were very stressful times for them.

I recently had a conversation with a very special friend of mine.  She reminded me of a familiar story.  God does a strange thing for the children of Israel in Exodus.  They are in an uncomfortable spot on their journey-- camping out everyday in the desert, following a promise that seems exciting at times but also sometimes seems impossible.  At this point in the story they find themselves reflecting back on their old days in Egypt, leaving out the bad memories (as we usually do), dwelling on what now seems like happy memories.


"Why didn't God let us die in comfort in Egypt where we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat? You've brought us out into this wilderness to starve us to death."


Nostalgic, isn't it?  Anyway, God decides to put them through a little exercise.  


God said to Moses, "I'm going to rain bread down from the skies for you. The people will go out and gather each day's ration. I'm going to test them to see if they'll live according to my Teaching or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they have gathered, it will turn out to be twice as much as their daily ration."  (Ex 16, Msg)


So He does, and they do and everyone has enough.  Except then their little wheels start turning.  They start trying to put some away for the coming days, planning ahead, just in case, even though God told them not to save any, just to trust Him and He would give them what they needed.  


This would have totally been me!  I would have been the mother grabbing little handfuls and shoving it in my purse to save some for my kids for later.  Just in case!-- even though God has always been there-- even though He has never let me or my family starve before, not to mention this is the same God who brought us out of Egypt!  We do this though, don't we?  How easily we forget.  We get all nostalgic about what used to be, blaming God for what we don't see happening now, and then when He asks us to trust Him, the God who has done ALL THIS, we try to sneak and get control back in our hands, as if we can do anything with it!  Today I am glad that while I might be the one that "plans" my family's financial future, I am NOT the one in control.  


Make sure you don't become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God,

   the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
   the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands
   crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
   the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
   the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard
   of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well
   in the days ahead of you.


If you start thinking to yourselves, "I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!"—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.
(Deut 8, Msg)


I'll say it one more time:  Today I am thankful that God always knows what I need and when I need it.  He is so much better at that job than I will ever be!

Hope Butcher