What is it?
You know, choosing the manna is hard. I don't know how the Israelites did it for 40 years. Eat and live or don't eat and starve. I'm not seeing many options.
The phrase "choosing the manna" came to me by way of Ann's book, One Thousand Gifts. It was in the first chapter, that I had to read it three times just to wrap my brain around it.
Manna, bread from Heaven, means "what is it?". Thin, white flakes appeared on the ground every morning. Moses writes that manna tasted like wafers made with honey. This is common knowledge to anyone with a Bible or a dictionary.
I'm not a big fan honey. But after 40 years, I think I would have acquired a taste for it.
To quote her book, "They eat the mystery." (pg. 22, One Thousand Gifts, Voskamp)
They eat what they don't understand and are full.
Mrs. Voskamp dives a little deeper. From my understanding her challenge to herself and her readers is what is it that comes to you from Heaven that you need to "eat"? To receive nourishment from, to enrich your life, to sustain it, to, have mercy, learn to enjoy or to be thankful?
Can I choose the manna? It is a hard thing. Choosing the manna, eating the mystery. We don't always like what comes to us from Heaven's consent. It seems unfair.
In my life this is what has come to us with Heaven's consent: Three little brown Mowgli children. Some days it is like bending a steel bar to choose to change my attitude of heart and forcing my mind to gratitude and joy that we have these children.
It seems unfair that the little brown children in our life had such harsh beginnings. Unfair that attachment is a long, difficult process. Unfair that there is not the natural chemical bond between mother and child that is released during pregnancy, but not with adoption.
So what is it that I am to "eat", to receive nourishment from, to enrich my life, to sustain it, to enjoy, to be thankful for in these crazy days?
I am learning to bend my iron will to line with the heart of God. Exchanging the imperfect for that which is perfecting me for the kingdom. Isn't that one of the goals to stand on His holy hill, with clean hands and a pure heart? (Psalm 24)
Ann ends chapter one by saying we all have holes, we all have mysteries in our life. But maybe these holes, these mysteries, will allow us "to see through to God". To have communion with Him. That He is the sustainer, our nourishment, enricher of life, the One to enjoy, the to One to give thanks to and for all. He is the Giver. The Giver of the gifts that show up daily in our lives, even when it's a mystery.
Bending that steel bar inside is incredibly hard, it hurts, and is the right thing to do. Choosing to eat the manna daily, just like the Israelites did for 40 years in the desert.
The phrase "choosing the manna" came to me by way of Ann's book, One Thousand Gifts. It was in the first chapter, that I had to read it three times just to wrap my brain around it.
Manna, bread from Heaven, means "what is it?". Thin, white flakes appeared on the ground every morning. Moses writes that manna tasted like wafers made with honey. This is common knowledge to anyone with a Bible or a dictionary.
I'm not a big fan honey. But after 40 years, I think I would have acquired a taste for it.
To quote her book, "They eat the mystery." (pg. 22, One Thousand Gifts, Voskamp)
They eat what they don't understand and are full.
Mrs. Voskamp dives a little deeper. From my understanding her challenge to herself and her readers is what is it that comes to you from Heaven that you need to "eat"? To receive nourishment from, to enrich your life, to sustain it, to, have mercy, learn to enjoy or to be thankful?
Can I choose the manna? It is a hard thing. Choosing the manna, eating the mystery. We don't always like what comes to us from Heaven's consent. It seems unfair.
In my life this is what has come to us with Heaven's consent: Three little brown Mowgli children. Some days it is like bending a steel bar to choose to change my attitude of heart and forcing my mind to gratitude and joy that we have these children.
It seems unfair that the little brown children in our life had such harsh beginnings. Unfair that attachment is a long, difficult process. Unfair that there is not the natural chemical bond between mother and child that is released during pregnancy, but not with adoption.
So what is it that I am to "eat", to receive nourishment from, to enrich my life, to sustain it, to enjoy, to be thankful for in these crazy days?
I am learning to bend my iron will to line with the heart of God. Exchanging the imperfect for that which is perfecting me for the kingdom. Isn't that one of the goals to stand on His holy hill, with clean hands and a pure heart? (Psalm 24)
Ann ends chapter one by saying we all have holes, we all have mysteries in our life. But maybe these holes, these mysteries, will allow us "to see through to God". To have communion with Him. That He is the sustainer, our nourishment, enricher of life, the One to enjoy, the to One to give thanks to and for all. He is the Giver. The Giver of the gifts that show up daily in our lives, even when it's a mystery.
Bending that steel bar inside is incredibly hard, it hurts, and is the right thing to do. Choosing to eat the manna daily, just like the Israelites did for 40 years in the desert.
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