Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of LifeExemplo

The physical food that God provides for us is a visual picture and reminder of how he feeds us spiritually with the nutrients of his grace.

I love to cook. I love how God has not ordained to sustain us with a daily green pill but delights in blessing us with the pleasure of an almost endless variety of fruits, vegetables, and meats. I love the variety of tastes, textures, and smells. I love the world of spices, each adding another interesting layer of taste to whatever food they are applied to. I love taking what God has provided and building a delicious meal and then displaying it in a beautiful way on the plate. Food represents God’s generosity and love. It reminds us that God wants us to thrive and to enjoy and, because we do, to worship the one who has lavished such goodness on us.

We live across from a food market with about one hundred and twenty vendors. As I walk through the market, I am often blown away by what I see and smell. It almost melts my brain that all of these wonderful things came out of the mind of God. It reminds me that he is glorious in creative power and gloriously generous in love. He still feeds me with good food, even in my spiritual amnesia moments.

Exodus 16 gives us an example of the extent of God’s commitment to supply his children with the physical food that they need and of the awesome power he has to provide it. The people of Israel, now in the wilderness, are in a state of panic. They are wondering where they are going to get food to eat, and they are grumbling to Moses that it would have been better for them to die in Egypt because at least there they had enjoyed plenty of good food. God hears their grumbling and responds: “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily” (Ex. 16:4–5).

Imagine the magnificence of this provision. Imagine bread appearing on the ground every day like dew. What an incredible picture of providing grace, even for people who are faithless and discontented. Here are people who keep wishing they could go back to their slavery when they have been set free by God’s liberating grace and are being provided for by his generous love. They are enjoying this bounty not because they have earned it or deserve it, but because they are his chosen children.

This moment is a finger pointing to God’s ultimate provision of bread. Jesus is the bread sent down from heaven (John 6:32–35). In him alone our spiritual hunger is satisfied. He alone can give life and strength to our souls. With gratitude, we remember that in him we are fed, not because we’ve earned it but because we are the chosen objects of his faithful and generous grace.

For further study and encouragement: John 6:32–35