Most of us have something that we dearly love to eat, something that we choose to consume.

Maybe not you, but my one thing—-BREAD.

As a child, I grew up playing with my younger brother.  We ran through the barnyard, sweating from morning to nightfall, enjoying the day for all that it provided for a child’s happiness.  In recalling my days of play with my brother Ron, I cannot ever remember a time when he ran into the kitchen with me to lift two slices of bread.  No, Ron would remain wherever our moment of play placed us while I ran into the kitchen, straight to the bread drawer, untwisted the tie that held the package tight, and slipped out two slices of bread for my enjoyment.

Now, there is a certain way to eat bread.

Yes, truly, a single way (for me, back then, when I was a child).

Before I unveil “my way of consumption of bread,” go with me a moment to my husband who tells how his grandpa enjoyed carving out the middle of his cornbread, eating all of the warm, soft inside and leaving behind the cornbread shell that (to the unsuspecting eye) looked to be a full and complete “pon” of cornbread.

Yet, my fascination with bread was not for cornbread that could be created within our kitchen’s oven; no, my love affair was focused upon the loaf of Butternut bread purchased at the local market.   Each week, mom would drive to the local grocery store, one where she would purchase enough food for the family, that, when mixed with the meat inside our freezer and vegetables in our garden, created enough food for our stomachs to enjoy.

Mom knew our growing family needed bread for quick sandwiches for the days she was pulled out to help dad in the fields and for the P&J sandwiches that kept her growing family filled as they awaited the dinner she was sure to create.

What I remember most (about mom) when it came to the loaves of bread was that mom never complained when she found the bread drawer empty (knowing, I am sure, that her second-born daughter had single handedly consumed much of the bread on her own).  I am sure that mom was cognizant of the culprit who secretly “stole” a majority of the bread; yet, rather than complain, instead, mom always purchased more bread (three loaves for a dollar), keeping the bread drawer filled.

And so, as mentioned earlier, most have a handicap, something that we dearly love to consume; yet, as I have grown in Christ, oftentimes, I am reminded how the Word of God is not a Bread that Distresses but a Bread which Sustains.

BREAD & One Way to Consume.

See a child race into the kitchen, quickly to the bread drawer, silently taking not one slice but two, retying the loaf, sliding shut the drawer, and racing out the back door (so that no one but Ron knew she had lifted two more slices of bread during her daily consumption of this one food).

See this same child pausing (once outside) to tear away the soft crust that surrounded her two slices of bread, not to throw down but to eat first.  And then….

See this young girl pause in her run to roll up one slice of bread into a small ball, one that fit so well into the inside of her cheek, as she carefully guarded the second slice for her future “ball” of bread.

As I find myself eating more bread during my current holiday, it is this food that my mind fixes upon early this morning.  Yesterday, we walked into one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen, a massive building that held much for the eye to behold.  On the ceiling were various and elaborate paintings, scenes that depicted Bible scenes.  On both sides of the aisle were additional massive paintings that provided the narrative of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

As the seven others sat down upon one of the front pews, I found that I could not sit, but instead stood there amazed at all that my heart could see.  That’s when I saw the Bible near the altar, the book opened for me to read.  As expected, when I stepped forward, the words were recorded in German, and even though I could not read every word, I recognized enough words to know the Bible passage that was recorded.

BREAD……Consumption of the Bread Which Sustains….John 6: 24-35….In the passage,

Jesus has just fed the multitude with the young boys’ two fish and five loaves of bread.

Jesus has just moved (the following day) to the other side of the sea, away from the crowd of people.

Jesus teaches how the people ate the food, “the loaves and were filled” (26).

Jesus reminds his disciples how the bread of this world fills, but does not sustain, how there is another kind of bread “which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him, the Father, God has set His seal” (27).

Yesterday, as I stood there with my attention focused on these words from John 6, the words recorded in the Bible resting upon the stand (situated at the front of the cathedral), I then remembered these next words—

Let us….not be filled with only the bread of this world that fills for a time and then needs to be replenished; but rather….

Let us….continually seek (as Jesus tells us) to consume the Bread of life which sustains….Yes….

Let us….eat of the True Bread of God, which comes down out of heaven…that Bread of Life that fills us to consumption, so we hunger and thirst no more….And….

Let us….dearly love to eat, to choose to consume & to choose to believe….the Word of God.

Let us….Today.