Jeremy L. Berg

The commercialized Christmas of our culture has become a celebration of excess.  A plump santa full of cookies, Christmas trees full of gifts, little elves full of cheer, and credit cards full of charges.

But as we reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas, survey the long unfolding story preparing the way for the Christ, we find that the story really begins in a deep place of want and longing.  Long before Jesus instructed his disciples to pray for their “daily bread”, the people of God were wandering in the desert with empty stomachs and hearts lacking even more – faith, hope, identity, direction and patience with God and one another.

The good news, however, is that the story of the Bible, from beginning to end, tells of a God who provides bread for his people.

So, in the following episode, we find the people of God wandering in a wilderness, hungry for food and a better life.  Disoriented by their current desert experience, they even start believing they’d rather be back in slavery with full stomachs than free people with growling stomachs in a desert.

“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” ⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.” (Exod 16:2-4)

God provides for them what they need; not what they want, nor how much they want, nor how often they may want it.  Daily, God provides what they need.

This Christmas as many of us are surrounded by celebrations of excess and plenty, let us remember those around us who, like the Israelites in this story, are lacking food and a place to lie their head.  Moreover, let us remember those many more around us, while stomachs full, are living in want of hope, physical health, a new job, a restored relationship, a fresh start.

Christmas comes to us in North America in the coldest, darkest time of the seasonal year. Bitter cold, shut in by snow and blustering winds that freeze our flesh. The birth of Hope-in-Person, the Christ child, likewise comes to us in the darkest, coldest night of our human predicament – naked and frozen in our sin. Helplessly exposed and destined for a fate far worse than frost-bite.  “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5)

Into this wilderness of human despair and sin, God provided something far greater than manna from heaven or our daily bread. God sent us The Bread of Life himself.  More on that next time.