“Yay!” “Thank you so much!”
Those were the words that we called out on Tuesday as the children here at YouthCare Ministries helped to carry the groceries into our little house. The excitement at receiving a few items of food was greater then I have ever felt for food before. Mangos, bananas, bread, cereal, coffee, jam and juice mix! Like a feast at the Kings table. It’s like living as royalty. Food had been getting low and breakfast had been pretty small. We hadn’t had much left if we were hungry during the long hours between lunch and dinner. But all of a sudden these few items made all the difference. We don’t have mountains of food or a hundred different choices for breakfast or snacks. We don’t need it. We get food prepared for lunch and dinner each day which usually involves one of either nsima, rice, or potatoes, some form of green and either beans or meat (usually beans). It’s always delicious and Aunt Mercy spoils us! But those few groceries. The option to have coffee in the morning when it had been tea for days. Fresh mangos and good bananas to have with peanut butter. Cereal to have with milk. The smallest things can be the greatest blessings and this was surely a blessing.
In the Western world, most of us have so much. We have full cupboards, tons of restaurant choices, and we can go to the grocery store when we run out of the exact item we crave. We can have different food for every meal for days without repeating anything. That isn’t the case here. I’ve realized that just having food to eat and satisfy your hunger is a blessing. That they give us choice to pick what we want to eat for breakfast is a blessing. Those 7 items – 7! We’re so exciting! The blessing to eat when we are hungry. The blessing to be able to fill our bellies with not just food but good, HEALTHY food. The blessing of Gods provision. Thank you Jehovah Jireh!
Matthew 6:25-34
25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat, and not for your body, what you will wear. Is your life not more than food and your body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky, that they do not sow or reap or gather produce into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they are? 27 And who among you, by* being anxious, is able to add one hour to his life span? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field, how they grow: they do not toil or spin, 29 but I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. 30 But if God dresses the grass of the field in this way,although it* is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not do so much more for you, you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?,’ 32 for the pagans seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, because tomorrow will be anxious for itself. ⌊Each day has enough trouble of its own.⌋
