A Trip To The Bakery

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rom time to time I reminisce about the opportunities I have had to live in France.  I remember places I’ve visited, friends I’ve made, and conversations I’ve had. However, my daily surroundings remind me that I am no longer in Paris.  Yet, it’s not the fact that I can’t visit the Eiffel Tower; it’s not the fact that everyone around me is speaking English, and it’s not the fact that I can drive a car instead of taking a metro.  None of these facts, while true, are as poignant a reminder as the fact that I cannot run down to the local bakery and buy a freshly baked French bread!   I guess you could say I am addicted to the stuff.

Every morning in Paris, I ran down to one of several bakeshops in the neighborhood and bought fresh bread and fresh croissants!  It was the best part of the day and one I eagerly anticipated!  You might say, I became a regular customer of the small bakery located just at the end of the street.  In fact, I referred to it as my boulangerie (bakery)!

A trip to this bakery was always an ordeal because it always involved somewhat of a dilemma.  The place was always busy. People from the neighborhood were busy buying their breads, desserts, and sandwiches for the day ahead.  For me, the bread selection was easy; it was the pastries that posed the problem.  Would it be a croissant, an apple turnover, a flan, a small quiche, etc.?  The possibilities were endless! Thank goodness, the patience of the lady behind the counter was not!  Finally, I would decide and hurry out of the place before deciding to purchase something else.  But no matter what else I had in my hand, I always had bread with me.

Bread, it seems, is the quintessential staple of life.  No matter the culture, no matter the language, no matter the country, bread is simply one thing we all have in common.  Perhaps this is why Jesus spoke so often of bread.  The word bread appears 63 times in the NIV version of the New Testament.  But the most well-known reference is found in Matthew 6:11 where Jesus teaches his followers to pray.  In this verse, Jesus simply says, “Give us today our daily bread.”

Two important ideas are presented to us in this small passage from Matthew’s gospel.  First, we see Jesus asking God to supply our bread.  This means we do not provide it for ourselves!  Far too often in the Christian life we try to be self-sufficient, trying to discover ways and means to provide for our needs.  We say we trust God yet we attempt to do everything for ourselves.  Jesus simply asked God to supply the bread, the very staple and the most basic need of life.  After all, that is God’s promise, isn’t it?  He promised to meet the needs we have in life and He is faithful to that promise.

The second lesson we need to grasp is the frequency with which this bread is delivered.  Jesus did not pray for weekly bread, monthly bread, or for a bread truck that would delivery on a pre-determined schedule.  No, he prayed for daily bread!  He wanted his followers to understand that we need God every day, not once a week, once a month, or just when we get into trouble.  We need Him every moment of every day and Jesus used the picture of daily bread to teach this every elementary but most important point about God.  We must partake of Him daily as the most basic and quintessential part of our lives.

Early every morning, I went in search of fresh bread and every morning I was rewarded for my efforts of getting up, getting dressed, and walking to the bakery.  The same principle is true for us today.  We must get up, open God’s word, plumb into its depths, partake of it, and make it the most integral and central part of our lives each day.  God stands ready each morning to provide your daily needs so trust Him and take Him at His word.  Have you made a trip God’s bakery today?