A minister at a conference was listening to a woman give the devotional. She was speaking in one foreign language, then another. “La madre que tengo hambre. La m’ere j’ai faim. Mutter, die ich hunger habe. La madre che ho fame.” Lastly, she interpreted in English, “Mommy, I’m hungry.” Traveling home, the first billboard the minister saw as he entered his hometown read: “All you can eat - $5.99.” A
About 25,000 people die every day from hunger. Over eight million people live in a condition of chronic hunger, almost one-tenth of our human family. So many of the world echoing, “Mommy, I’m hungry,” who can’t even imagine: “All you can eat.”
Author and pastor Ben Patterson wrote: “Food is ultimately not about food, but about God.” Why would Patterson say this? Because our deepest hungers, our strongest urges, our most acute cravings are not for food, but for God, and the life that is possible in relation to God.
The Bible knows this. The Psalmist reminded Israel: “I am the LORD thy God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Isaiah prophesied: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of wellaged wines. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him so that he might save us.” Food meant God; God meant salvation.
How do we satisfy this hunger? How can we obtain this food? After Jesus fed the five thousand, those who followed him around the shores of Galilee asked the same question: “How do we work for this food? What must we do to perform the works of God?”
Already they had forgotten what had happened the day before. Jesus had received the lunch-box-offering of a little boy, blessed it and divided it, and it had fed them all. The Gospels say, “they had eaten their fill.” What had they done to earn that meal? Nothing. Jesus had just given it to them because they had come to him.
And so he told them: “This is the work of God—that you believe in him whom He has sent.” Just believe. There is nothing you can do to earn this Bread. It rains down from heaven just as did the manna in the wilderness. All that is needed is that you yearn for it, long for it, crave it. You don’t have to be a righteous person to be given this food. But you must hunger for it.
There is a story of a copy of the Gospel of John coming into the possession of a passenger on an Indian train. Unimpressed, he tore it up and threw pieces out of the train window. Along the tracks, a gang of plate-layers were working on the line. One worker picked up a discarded scrap and made out these words, “Bread of life.”
“That’s just what I need!” he exclaimed. And then asked another who stood near, “Where can I get it?” He was warned about being arrested, but he made the effort and eventually found a Christian community through which his life was fulfilled.
If a simple Indian coolie could find a new quality of life like this, then, so can we. The heart’s hunger can indeed be satisfied and the soul can be filled!
If we do not have hope, peace, strength, forgiving hearts, we are spiritually starving to death. We are starving for God—starving for God because only God can fill that hunger.
The good news is that there is a sign over the Kingdom gate, and it reads “All you can eat.”
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.