Five Minute Friday :: Hidden

• Five Minute Friday :: Hidden Linkup

To anyone who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give them a white stone with a new name written on the stone, a name no one knows except the one who receives it. And I will give them the Morning Star. Revelation 2:17, 28

For Israel of the exodus, manna was bread from heaven, bread of heaven. They'd trusted God's supply, but then the desert wanderers asked what it was, so it received the name manna or "what is it." Strength for the day at hand along with the possibility of a future was hidden within God's gift that rained from the sky, and not inside anything they might plan, design, or stockpile themselves. After all, they'd learned producing, counting, and anxious saving when they slaved for Pharaoh! Much later on at the autumn ingathering, the land they tilled and cared for would yield provisions to store over the winter months. Much later on. Not right now.

Scripture tells us, our experience shows us, God's presence frequently is hidden, isn't exactly apparent to our senses because many layers of more obvious stuff conceal it. We sometimes discover the Holy Other hidden in people who feel strange to us. In a criminal convicted and crucified by imperial powers. When expectations turned upside down, inside out, suddenly point the way to that new thing God had hidden along the way. In the joyful energy of spontaneous dance. In waters that drown us into oblivion while they birth us anew. We find the divine presence hidden in the emptiness of a once occupied tomb, but why do we still keep seeking the living among the dead?

With nutrients for our bodies, sustenance for our spirits hidden in, with, and under the grain, the yeast, the salt, and the heat that created it, this bread is holy manna. With the surprise of friendship hidden and then revealed when we break bread together, a well-baked loaf leads to the heaven on earth of human connection.

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