Bread

This Sunday we will celebrate the Lord's Supper/Communion and I have been reflecting on taking communion as a kid. On Sundays we were always on our own for breakfast so I usually went with my favorite - Captain Crunch. Inevitably my stomach would start growling - loudly - about halfway through the Pastor's sermon. I'd spend the remaining time - an eternity - thinking about lunch! This posed a particular problem on Communion Sundays. The ushers would first pass out the "bread" - they were actually little crackers less than a half inch square - then they would pass out the juice and we would have to sit holding both until the Pastor led us to take them. I remember fidgeting with the little plastic cup and on several occasions I would squeeze it too hard and the plastic cup would crack and the juice would start running out all over the pew causing a minor disturbance in the DeHaan row! Anyways, I would sit there with my stomach growling and longing to gobble up that little cracker - something to put in my stomach! Of course it wasn't nearly enough to even touch my hunger (20 of those little crackers might have added up to one saltine) but even so, that little cracker always tasted so good!!

I used to feel really bad about all this because I was only thinking of how it was going to taste instead of thinking about Jesus and the cross ...but perhaps I had it right all along! If Jesus had been sitting in the pew next to me perhaps he would have said - "Take a whole handful, Chris - enjoy it - eat it up!" His death was bitter and painful yet for us it is LIFE! If we listed every good thing that we have received through His death we would would be overwhelmed - filled up with gratitude and joy. We get "every spiritual blessing" and we can hardly even begin to count them. No wonder the Scriptures say "taste and see that the Lord is good" and that Mary sang out "He fills the hungry with good things!"

Do I really hunger for Him - the Bread of Life? Do I daily taste and see? He doesn't offer up some little token serving size of Himself - He offers us daily the full measure of His goodness. I love the invitation of Jesus in John 21:12 "Jesus said to them, 'come and eat.'"