Oasis
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
First Week of Advent
Matthew 15:33
“Where could we ever get enough bread in this deserted place?”
This happened before, in another desert not far away. “The whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron … and the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you.’ … Moses said to them, ‘No one is to keep any of it until morning. Some kept it anyway, and in the morning it was full of maggots and began to smell” (Exodus 16).
God feeds us when we’re hungry, and when we’re sick he heals our diseases. God is in heaven and we are on earth, but Jesus called out to his Abba for bread on earth, for the power to heal on earth, and it was granted to him.
Still. Time marches on.
Only a few hours after the finest meal, I am hungry again. A few hours more and I am Very Hungry.
And the fact is that every one of the people healed by Jesus eventually died.
God’s love carries me into and through every day of my life on earth. But many of those days I might be sick, tired, starving … where is God then?
Could it be that God feeds himself to us; in our sickness he stands in our stead? Sometimes this nourishes my physical body, and always it nourishes my soul.
Jesus makes another point in the desert. I taste God’s bread when I give myself away to those who need me. And I drink God’s wine when I receive what others have to give.
Walter Brueggeman says that just when there is no reason to expect food, God brings it. Jesus knew that. He wants us to know it too.
Bread is simple, Lord. We eat, and we are filled. Healing is often simple too. But when I am hungry again, when I am sick again, what then? When I least expect you, you are there. Let my soul sense your presence and your living, filling water as it gushes into my life and makes me whole.
Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1200
