Yes, Virginia, that's manna in our back yard!

The food miraculously sent to the Israelites during their forty years sojourn in the desert (Exodus 16; Numbers 11:6-9).  (catholic encyclopedia)

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6: 35


Give us this day, our daily bread....

It was food needed as thousands of Israelites traveled across the desert searching for
the promised land; people who were made to travel much longer than necessary due to their
failure to heed God's commands. It, along with water provided in mysterious ways, was
totally sustaining.

There's grace and then there is grace. There is salvational grace, grace provided by
God that, though not deserved, allows His creatures to be saved. It is the grace that
most folks think of when grace is discussed. It is a monumental gift that pulls us out of
conflict with God and into adoption as His sons and daughters through, and only through,
the work of Jesus Christ.

But there is another very important grace; it is provisional grace, that grace which
allows us to survive. Without this grace, we would not live. This is a grace that is given
each minute we exist, one that provides the necessary life-giving things like a beating
heart, breathing lungs, an environment so closely fine-tuned that the slightest change
could well mean extinction.

When we get up out of bed, when we fix meals to eat, when we travel to work or
school, when we accomplish anything, it is through the provision of our Father in
heaven...we didn't allow or cause any of it to happen. 

So how should this make is feel? Well, I'd start with a good dose of thankfulness!
It's really no secret why we should glorify God, is it... without the glory of God we,
his clay, would not exist. He is a sovereign, loving, all powerful and all knowing
God. We.... are served well by remembering His grace each and every time we
pray!

Praise God!

You can't always get what you want....

      For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29: 11

Never was much of a Rolling Stones fan... Beatles, forever, yeah, yeah, yeah! There was
one song, though, that came to my mind the other day that I am quite certain was not
created as a Christian song or lyric.

You Can't Always Get What You Want (Repeat 2)
But if you take some time, you just might find,
That You Get What You Need.    (that's my recollection of the basic lyrics)

The song did have some nice instrumental stuff, particularly as it was ending. The Stones,
it seemed to me, were always in competition with the Beatles and this type of song seemed
to be a response to the changes the Beatles were going through about the time of
Sgt. Peppers.

The lyrics above do, in many ways, mirror the dilemma many folks find in Christianity...
If we give up control to God, we are accepting that what happens to us will be what is in
His sovereign  plan of grace for our lives. It may, in fact, contain some painful experiences
that we certainly wouldn't choose, if we were driving the boat, as it were.

Rich Mullins said it perfectly..

Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need

We aren't really aware, many times, of what we need. We tend to take the easy way out,
to looks for the wide road, to wish that all our dreams would come true....yet, how could
we, knowing that we are limited in our ability to see a clear future, really expect to make
the same types of choices that our all-knowing Heavenly Father can make.

He knows what is needed and necessary. His ways are true and righteous. His love for
us is transcendent. Jesus, take the wheel to wherever it leads; we trust in You!

Praise God!