The Israelites murmured. The food ran out. The people were hungry. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They missed the abundance that had surrounded them there, even though they had been slaves.
So, they complained to Moses and Aaron about being hungry. And the Lord told Moses that He would provide bread for the people to eat.
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.
-- Exodus 16: 14-15 (KJV)
So, God provided Manna. It was said to be sweet to the taste, much like honey. Manna was available six days a week and it would spoil, become wormy, and smell bad if the Israelites tried to save it until the next day. The exception to that rule only happened on the sixth day of the week. Then, the manna fell in abundance and the people were permitted to gather twice as much and to cook it and save it for the next day. It did not fall on the Sabbath. So the Lord provided a way to preserve it for His people.
The Israelites ate Manna for forty years, until they reached the promised land. Forty years, they witnessed and partook of a daily miracle.
I have realized that blessings often come like Manna from Heaven. I am so grateful when I first receive them. They are so unique and so new and I am so ready for that blessing, that it is easy to see and recognize and be thankful.
But then, time goes on and I get complacent. The "same old things" cease to look like blessings, and instead, start being something I take for granted. I forget what my life was like before the Manna came. I forget that the blessings I receive are the "bread which the Lord hath given you to eat."
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. Ex 19:5-6
I love that phrase! "a peculiar treasure". We are valued by our Father in Heaven. At each step along the way we have received all that we needed; both physically and spiritually. It is just that sometimes, we don't appreciate the blessings that we have. We are looking for for something else instead.
Today, my prayer is simply that we will recognize the blessings in our lives, the great and the small, as manna from Heaven. That we will trust the Lord to provide what we need. That we will trust Him enough to accept whatever He chooses to send us. And most of all, that we will remember that we are a treasure to Him.
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie
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Patty Ann is a busy mother, grandmother, and wife. She lives her life in the woods she loves up on the top of a beautiful mountain. She loves music, photography and writing. Most of all she loves her Heavenly Father and enjoys writing about his influence in her life. You can find her on her blog at Pitterle Postings
