v. 29 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
The Father gave them Manna when they grumbled, and now they are grumbling/asking for proof and the Father still gives them bread…just not what they expect. Jesus is trying to show us that there is something much more important than the food we eat, and it’s HIM! James 1.17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” And it is true whether we always think so or not.
Whenever something is given to you that you gripe about, and then a little later you see that it was a blessing from above, you get to have one of those Holy Awe moments.
When I was in Burma for 2 weeks, they divided up the team one day into the tasks for the next. They said that me and a girl named Holly would do the children’s program. VBS for 70 kids! While the rest of them cooked lunch. I got all upset that I had to babysit while the rest of them got to hang out in the kitchen. I will never forget what John Tate said to me that night.
“Quit complaining Dan. You’re the only one with the gift of teaching. Any one of us would rather teach those kids, but you’re the one that gets to, so stop complaining about it.” Now if you knew John Tate, you would know that he was under the influence of missions stress and the Holy Spirit, because he’d never say anything so aggressive otherwise.
The next day, there I was, playing games and telling Bible stories to 70 little kids that were soaking it all up. I didn’t see my teammates very much, but I heard they were around. They were around alright…in a Burmese firehole kitchen. They had pealed and sliced about 900 pounds of potatoes, then stood over an open fire and fried them in a pot of oil, and sweated and burned their brains out all day long. When it was time to eat, I didn’t want to. I felt that Holy Awe of receiving a gift from above and not even noticing it.
Sometimes God (heh, most of the time) God gives us what we need, but it doesn‚Äôt fit into what WE think we need, so we don‚Äôt take it. May we accept the things God gives us, even if we accept them like Job ‚ÄúJob 2:10 ¬? He replied, ‚ÄúYou are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?‚Äù ¬? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.‚Äù Because I think the more we accept from God, we‚Äôll see that He actually gives us more good things than we realize.