Readings for today: Exodus 16-19, Matthew 19:16-30
“Walk with open hands.” I remember when God first spoke these words to me. I was in my final year at Princeton. I had passed my ordination exams. I was completing my degree and getting ready to graduate. I was looking forward to what was next. I had applied to over thirty churches across the United States but had no idea where the Lord would take us. I had a good friend who took the opposite approach. He drew a circle around his hometown. 45 minutes in each direction. Only looked for churches within that window. He and I talked about the differences in our respective approaches. He believed God would never call him to leave his hometown. I believed the opposite. By limiting God, he really struggled to find work and when he did, he didn’t last long. For him, geography trumped ministry fit and it led to heartbreak. As I wrestled with my own sense of call and my own desire to be close to family and friends, I realized God often calls us away from home. God often calls us from what’s familiar into the unknown. God often calls us to leave home, kindred, and country to follow His call on our lives. Along the way, God also calls us to trust. Trust Him to lead. Trust Him to provide. Trust Him to deliver us safely to the destination He has laid out for us.
Walk with open hands. This, in essence, is what God is teaching Israel in our reading for today. Meat. Manna. Water. All of it had to be provided by God in the wilderness where resources were scarce. The command regarding the daily collection of manna always strikes me. “And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning…On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.” (Exodus 16:14-19, 22-23) The people of God literally had to walk with open hands every single day. They had to trust the Lord to provide their food for that day and it was always just enough. There was never any left over. There was never any lack. It was always just right. If they tried to save some for the next day, it would spoil overnight. Except on the sixth day. On that day they gathered twice as much so they could observe the Sabbath. It’s a powerful lesson about the miraculous provision of God and it’s one the Lord reinforces in the prayer He taught His disciples to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread…”
Walk with open hands. Our lives are not our own, friends. We’ve been bought with a price. Jesus Himself now claims us as His own. We are His treasured possession to do with as He pleases. God continues to reinforce this idea in my own life. He’s loosened my grip on things especially over this last year. My plans. My calling. My job. My home. My children. My life. I’ve learned how much I need to come before Him for the strength and wisdom I need for each and every day. I cannot rely on yesterday’s manna. I cannot borrow from tomorrow’s supply. I must make do with what the Lord provides today and trust it will always be just enough.
Readings for tomorrow: Exodus 20-22, Matthew 20:1-16