Daily Bread

Give us this day our daily bread.                                                                       Matthew 6:11

As I went to a local farmer’s market today, I began to think about that phrase from the Lord’s Prayer- “Give us this day our daily bread…” In ancient times, there were no supermarkets, (obviously), no refrigeration, and no high-speed transportation to bring in food from long distances. People would go to a local market of some kind every day to shop for bread, fish, vegetables, oil, meat (if they were lucky or wealthy), or any other foodstuffs. There were no food preservatives, other than salting, smoking, or drying, and food generally needed to be consumed on the day or two after purchase.

So, when Jesus said that they should pray for their daily bread, he meant that they were to be reliant on God daily for subsistence. Individuals did not have capacity or availability of large amounts of food storage- they had to shop frequently for what they needed- they could store very little.

In our first-world picture of food supply, we have abundance, and typically, any given pantry, freezer and refrigerator fairly bulges with food. Unfortunately, our ultra processed food is abundant, but also nutritionally void, and often unhealthy for us. But it also tends to give us this false sense of food security, and may take us just a step or two away from daily dependence on God for our very food.

We are blessed with modern ways of shopping for, and storing food, but to the extent that it makes us feel less daily dependent upon God for it, we are that much poorer in spirit.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for our daily bread, Amen