Manna

I have come to learn that there are times in our lives when God desires to keep us especially close to Him. There are times when it is vitally important that we not stray too far from His guidance, but even more importantly, from His protection. When we are committed to walking in His path for our lives, drinking from His cup, and living a life driven by His purpose for us, the enemy will seek to derail us, put us off of that path, or even harm us. God tells us though, that He will shine a light to our path, that He will hold us up in his hand and that we will not stumble. We have read in the Bible that, if God is for us, who then shall stand against us?

Sometimes, though, we get romanticized fantasies of what God’s protection looks like, or will look like, in our lives. I know I do. Please don’t misunderstand. I am not limiting what God can do in our lives. Our greatest stories of dramatic rescues and underdogs claiming victory come from the Bible. I have a very vivid imagination. I can see clearly God invoking a “Red Sea Technique” on those that would stand in my way or seek to harm me. I admit to visions of standing, feet apart, fists on hips, chin up high, with a glorious beam of light from heaven behind me, as those that would seek to hurt me are struck down before me by some ailment or pestilence.

God is absolutely the God of majestic and dramatic gestures and happenings. He is also in the littlest, tiniest details of our lives. It is in those little, tiny details that some of His greatest acts of love happen. We know from the Bible that he is our father. We have a parent-child relationship with God when we seek to live the life He has created for us. While not all of us have children, most all of us have had parents or guardians as we grew up. I understand first-hand that there are exceptions to the “typical” role of parents, and that, tragically, all parents do not always have the best interest of their children foremost in their minds and actions. Our heavenly father, however, absolutely has our best interest foremost in His heart and in His actions.

In that role of parent, there are times when He must limit us in order to protect us. There are times He must rein us in and keep us close and confined for a time, for the purpose of keeping us safe and keeping us on His path for us. During these times, He continues to provide for our needs, but we may find that we go through periods of limitation and restriction on “extras”. During these times, we may find that the progress we struggle to make simply isn’t happening. It may seem like we’re moving through molasses, that no sooner do we take a step forward, we are pushed back again. We could choose to get discouraged and frustrated. We could choose to wonder why God brought us so far only to leave us hanging at what seems to be the critical moment. We could choose to think negative thoughts, maybe throw Bible verses back at God. “I thought you were going to shine a light to my path, God. Where’s my light, huh?” I’ve certainly been guilty of that a few times. You know how when you do something your kids don’t like, or when you don’t let them do things they want to do, they won’t hesitate to throw your words back at them? We do that, too, with our heavenly father.

We can choose to act like petulant children who just want what we want when we want it. Or, we could choose to pause, zoom out, try to see a bigger picture and consider the fact that there could be a reason that God is limiting us. God has given me a couple of examples of this lately. The first came a few weeks ago. Seemingly out of nowhere, although I know that nothing is random, I began thinking about manna. When the Israelites were on their journey to the promised land, God provided them with manna. There were stipulations, though. They could only gather what they could eat right then, that day. If they took any more than that, it would spoil, except for the day before the Sabbath. On that day, they could gather up twice as much so that they could rest on the Sabbath day. Why would God do that? Why wouldn’t he just give them the ability to store up the manna, so they wouldn’t have to deal with it every single day? We read in Exodus 16:4 that God said to Moses, “I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions”. He was absolutely going to deliver on His promise to meet their needs and take care of them, but He also needed for them to stay close to Him, to focus on His word, to stay dependent on Him, and most importantly, to follow His instructions. Not because He’s an egomaniac who just needs our devotion and attention, but because that was how He was going to keep them safe and on the right path. They weren’t ready to be independent of Him yet, they were still too “new” in their journey.

We do everything that we can to give our children everything they need, but do we give it all to them at one time? No. They’re not ready for that. We increase what we give them as they grow and mature and demonstrate an ability to handle the increases. Luke 12:48 tells us, “To whom much is given, much is expected”. God wants us to be free from expectations, free from worry. There are times when He wants us to have the innocence and freedom of childhood. Don’t we, as parents, wish our children would just relax and enjoy their childhoods, instead of them always wishing they were older or wishing that they could do this thing or that thing that they see older kids doing? There are times when God just wants us to stop where we are and let Him be in charge.

Yes, as parents we sometimes limit or restrict our children’s increases and activities as a punishment. Sometimes, though, we do it because we can see a bigger picture of their lives. We can see the possible ramifications of letting them have too much too quickly. They may see that as a punishment, but the truth is that we just want what’s best for them. We know that God is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, so we know that His truth is that He wants what’s best for us. It’s reasonable, then, to believe that there will be times when He will give us our manna. He will absolutely meet our needs. But like manna, we may only be allowed to keep what we need for that moment, that day. In those times He needs for us to cleave to Him, stay close to Him, leaning on His every word and doing only what He tells us is safe and allowable in that moment. We may not yet be ready, or it may not yet be safe for us to store up and go on ahead of Him.

I saw another illustration of this very thing the other day as I was watching a show about hippopotamus. (That is proof right there that God comes to us where we are!) I don’t normally watch a lot of shows about hippopotamuses (or is it hippopotami?), but for some reason I watched this one. They were featuring a mother hippo with her baby. Apparently, hippos are born with the ability to swim underwater for long periods of time and this baby hippo was enjoying playing in the water beside his mother, while she kept watch over him. Hippos may seem like lumbering, slow animals but in actuality they are very fierce and dangerous when they’re attacked. Other predatory animals in the rivers and areas where they live are careful not to mess with the adult hippos. As the baby hippo played and bounced in the water, he became more confident and less attentive to his mother’s presence. Soon he had bounced and jumped far enough away from her that she began to bellow warnings at him. What the baby didn’t realize was that there was a crocodile who was also watching him, waiting for the moment when he got too far away from the protection of his mother. The worst happened, and the baby wandered too far away for its mother to protect it. The crocodile got to the baby before the mother got to the crocodile.
As frustrated as I get when I am limited and unable to reach the goals that I set for myself, I would far prefer this to the crocodile. God has said to us, “Be still and know that I am God.” He’s in charge. He’s in control. He’s told us what we need to do. Be still and know.

When we go through times of resistance, times when it seems like we’re not making any forward progress at all, times when it seems we can’t see our hands in front of our faces, it could very well be because He needs for us to be still and know that He is God; know that He is in charge. He will give us our manna, he will protect us from the crocodiles that would gladly have us for dinner. What we have to do, though, is let Him. Trust that He knows our hearts and that He loves us with a love so big that even though of us with children of our own cannot even begin to comprehend it. We must stay close to Him and listen for his counsel and guidance, trusting in its perfection.

The Foo Fighters have a song called “Times Like These”. It’s one of my favorite songs. Although this band doesn’t label themselves as a Christian band, I have found incredible spiritual truth in their lyrics and music. In this song, the chorus says “It’s times like these we learn to live again. It’s times like these, we give and give again. It’s times like these, we learn to love again. It’s times like these, time and time again.” It is indeed in times like these that we learn so much and God makes us ready for the next steps on our journey.