Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Bread for the Journey





Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience in the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.

God is awake.                                   ~Victor Hugo

There is much that happens between sowing the wheat seed and baking the bread.

The seeds turn into kernels before they become loaves that satisfy. There is a time when they are buried underground with no signs of bearing grain. If the story stopped there, we'd have be no bread.

Too often we turn off the camera there. We fold up the tripod, call it a day. We think it's over. In life, as in farming, there are times when we simply cannot see what's going on. We see only in part.

Some things just cannot be rushed. In our haste we dart around searching for a substitute to hedge our bets in case the harvest doesn't come in as we thought. We don't wait well.

We gorge ourselves on frozen waffles rather than wait on rising bread.

It is discomfiting to face that we are not in control. How did we come to believe that we were ever in charge? Perhaps we finally yield in humility and find that we are still within the watchful care of our loving God.

God does not panic. He makes all things beautiful in its time. That part is for our benefit, because God is not bound by time or space.


Courage and patience take time to develop. Surely as night follows day, we will mature in the faith if we do not lose heart. Though we may grow weary, we will be refreshed.

Thanks be to  God.

I will lift up  my eyes  to the mountains;
From whence  shall my help come?

My help comes  from the LORD,

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow  your foot  to slip;

He who keeps you  will not slumber.

Behold,  He who keeps Israel

Will neither  slumber  nor sleep.

The LORD  is your keeper;
The LORD  is your shade  on your right hand.

The sun will not  smite you  by day,

Nor  the moon  by night.

The LORD  will protect you  from all evil;

He will keep  your soul.

The LORD  will guard  your going out  and your coming in

From this time forth  and forever.  ~ Psalm 121