For a Day, Forever

What keeps you going? Diet Coke? Chocolate? There’s an ad that used to be on TV. A woman was getting overwhelmed by the “The traffic! The boss! The baby! The dog! That does it!! Calgon, take me away!” Each of us has something that keeps us going when the day gets out of control.

For me, when the pile on the desk is rising and the deadlines are coming fast, it’s coffee.

But sometimes the stakes are higher. It’s not enough just to get through the next deadline or the next meeting. Dealing with death or addiction, divorce or loss, or even the paralyzing nuclear meltdown going on in Japan, coffee won’t keep you going. Nor will a nice bath. It takes something more powerful, more permanent.

When Jesus fed the crowds with five barley loaves, it was for the moment. Having their immediate needs met, John says, the crowds wanted to make Jesus their king. They wanted him to keep them going day-to-day. But Jesus wasn’t interested only in that. He offered another sort of bread—not like daily manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness—the eternal bread of life.

Bread that satisfies forever is no Willie Wonka daydream, but a metaphor of faith and trust in God’s love revealed in Jesus. Yes, we need our daily bread—and we pray for it. But we also need infinitely more. We need someone in whom to place our trust, someone on whose promise we always can rely. To believe in Christ is to stake a claim in God’s coming kingdom. To receive the bread of life is to taste and see that the Lord is forever good.

My prayer for you is that along the way you will have both bread for the day and bread forever. The future calls. We answer in faith. Amen.