What is your manna?

Beloved of God,

If you don’t have lunch plans for Sunday yet, don’t make ‘em! We’d love to have you spend time with your church family this Sunday right after the Sunday school hour (11:45 am) as we potluck together. You'll align with our theme if you can make any Irish cuisine (or St. Patrick-inspired fare), but anything you are willing to share is welcome. Stick around, and eat with us if you can.
Our Wednesday fellowship meals are out the gate and off to a fine start. If you need a night off of dinner prep or want to make that time with your church family a regular part of your week, we’d love to have you. If you have a friend who might be ready to meet some Christian people in a relaxed setting, I hope you’ll bring them along. It’s a great way to meet our church family and to know one another a little better. Next week we’re having tacos, the friendliest food in existence. I hope you’ll feel welcome to join us week by week. 

Our Scripture reading for Sunday comes from Exodus 17, a bit of a disappointing moment. The Israelites have come up from the land of Egypt by this point, but they are still learning how to be a people who trust God. God has given them, for the first time, something to bear as a sign of their relationship. This is a brand new thing for them. Before the Israelites bore God’s covenant law, or the ark of the covenant, or the tabernacle trappings, or the presence of priests, God had them carry around something else: manna (Ex 16:34-35).
God has proven faithful and has commanded his people to carry this manna around as a reminder of that faithfulness. But then they run our of water. What we find out in Exoudus 17 is that after all the ways God has proved faithful thus far, Israel doesn’t yet know how to trust him. They can carry that manna everywhere, but if the lesson doesn’t land it won’t matter. 
When you find yourself fretting and wondering if God is really faithful, what is your own jar of manna? What is that moment or that sign of God’s faithfulness that you might overlook in your worry? Maybe it is so deep in your story that you don’t even notice it? We all know that the manna rode around in the Ark with the Ten Commandments. But do we realize the manna came first? Take some time to notice places where God has been faithful to you. Do it to be grateful, but also because when things get tough we are supposed to remember those places. God marks our lives with his faithfulness not because he needs reminding of it, but because we do. 

Please join me this week in praying for:

• Those we know and love who are facing loss or grief. 
  
• Family, church folk, and neighbors who are lonely.
• Family, church folk, and neighbors who are angry.
• Those among us who are carrying worry and care for others who are far away.
• In praise for the gift of fellowship with one another.
• Wisdom.
• Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
• Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).
  

Your are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall