Feasting on the Mystery

I love the word that God’s children used to name those daily dew drops of wonder (Exodus 16:31). Manna sounds like the Hebrew word for What is it? Though they ate the same delicacy for forty years, the Israelites never figured out how to aptly describe their daily dish. Old Testament writers refer to it as “bread from Heaven.” They mention  it tastes like honey and looks like frost, that every family always had enough and that the gift came morning by morning with the dew. What is it?

For many, all this talk about manna’s unusual name may be nothing more than mere linguistics. But for this mama who has spent much of her lifetime demanding to know, the Israelite’s open beguilement is refreshing and convicting. Though they didn’t know what manna was, God’s chosen ones embraced the mystery and allowed it to fill them.  Morning by morning, we admit we don’t know it all.

In the poignant words of Anne Voskamp,”When we find ourselves groping along, famished for more, we can choose. When we are despairing, we can choose to live as Israelites gathering manna. For forty long years, God’s people daily eat manna…Hungry, they choose to gather up that which is baffling. They fill on that which has no meaning. More than 14,600 days they take their daily nourishment from that which they don’t comprehend. They find soul-filling in the inexplicable.” (1000 Gifts).

When was the last time I reached for what I did not understand and allowed it to fill me with wonder rather than cause me to doubt? When was the last time I allowed a mystery from His hand to inspire worship rather than worry? How would my life change if I embraced the gifts from God’s hands even when they come in packages I don’t understand? The problem so vast it points to my inarguable need for a BIG God, the challenge so daunting it chases me to His strength, the prayer so desperate it flings me onto His lap of mercy– These are the mysteries meant to chase me to the heart of God. And there, I find that the only thing I need to know is that He loves me. Oh, how he loves me. 

The Overflow:  In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock…
                                                                         -Nehemiah 9:15

Could it be that our quest to always know, our demand to understand creates yet more holes in our buckets? Are there times that the knowing actually diminishes our wonder? Ravi Zacharias claims that if we are to understand wonder, we must first understand that….

Eve wanted to KNOW…