I don’t really like change. Whether it’s big changes in life or little changes in life…I can get tripped up over changes. Even the transition during the end of the school year, the switch from kids being in school to kids being at home rattles me just a little bit. It’s not the kids being home that rattle me…I love having them home…it’s more the shift from very structured days…you get up at this time, to be here by this time, to be picked up by this time, to do homework by this time, to go to bed by this time (very structured)…to not so much structure on more relaxed summer days. I can do about a week of total unstructured time in my days and then I need some structure. Anyway, even good change like summer vacation makes me feel like the ground is shifting just a bit under my feet.
Lately I’ve been reading the book of Joshua in the Bible and in chapter 5, I read about how the manna stopped. The manna had been God’s special provision of food for His people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They wandered because of their lack of faith and disobedience, but God was faithful to give them food every day. The time comes when the Israelites enter into the land that God had promised to give them long before they disobeyed.
After the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River, which God miraculously parted so they could walk across on dry ground just like they had crossed the Red Sea some 40 years earlier, the people celebrated the Passover. Verse 11-12 say: “The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce ofCanaan.”
There it is in black and white in my Bible: The manna stopped. The manna stopping was a miracle, just like the manna starting had been…it was something God did. When I read about the manna stopping, I wondered, “Were the people afraid when the manna stopped?” I think I would have been. They had gone out and gathered manna for 40 years. For some of the people, that’s all they had ever known…it’s what they did…every day (except on the Sabbath, but we won’t talk about that here).
“No manna” equaled a big change for the Israelites. It was change, even though the change they faced was a good one. God was keeping His promise to bring them to a new homeland. They would eat the wonderful and abundant produce of that new land; but it would still be a change.
Those couple of verses in Joshua reminded me that when there is change in my life, good change or seemingly bad change, I need to have faith in the God who cares for me. I need to remember that the God who provided all the manna will provide in a new way, maybe a different way, as well. He doesn’t forget about me AND He is not afraid of change at all. As a matter of fact, He’s in control of it.
pieces and ponderings 