Thursday, April 7, 2016

Dear God,

Reading Sacred Space - The Prayer Book 2016 by the Irish Jesuits, I read the devotion on the feeding of the 5,000 and walked away with more than ever before.  Yes, stretching the small amount of food a boy brought was miraculous; however, perhaps it was less about feeding hungry people and more about opening the eyes to faith and possibility.

Often we are hungry for our daily bread and after we eat it, we forget about the meal.  We may pray over our meal giving thanks but within minutes we forget it.  We fail to think about the farmers who follow their call to provide food for nations.  We don't remember how they put seeds in the ground and later harvested it.  We don't reflect upon those who took the wheat and made it into flour and still more of those who took the flour and baked the bread, even those who slipped it into a package to keep our food safe.  We forget the hands of those who produce food for us and the power of the One to grow the seeds in the first place.  We forget how faith is part of it all.

O Lord, you open us to wonder and awe.  Rarely do you feed us daily bread alone.  You feed us faith and possibility.  You widen our scope, our horizon to see beyond the bread to the holy, the magnificent, and the lavish love, but also to generosity, hope, and mercy.  The multitude who ate on the hill with Jesus walked away with much, much more than food in their belly.  They fed on the love of the Master and walked away with faith in you.

Loving God,
forgive us
when we
take for granted
our daily food.
Forgive us
when we fail
to look
more deeply
into the gifts
of your spirit.
Forgive us
when we fail
to see faith
at work.
Please open us
to you.

Love, Andrea