Bread and Bird Bandits

We don’t throw much food away in our house. We’re partial to eating. The more leftovers there are in the fridge, that testify to great amounts of cooking having been done, the happier my family is. Occasionally though, something will get away from me. One day I thought I was doing myself a favor by getting slow cookers going with two different meats. I was giddy, thinking of the leftovers and the free time I would have to do something more pleasant than the the making of the main dish. But upon rising the next day, I realized I had forgotten to refrigerate the crock that was full of pork chops that had been slow cooked in mushroom soup. I nearly cried. Finding berries in the frig growing white, fuzzy stuff is also disappointing. It grieves me to toss out food, (which I equate with money), but there are the sad, rare times when it must be done.

One of our most recent discards was bread. I don’t blame that on us so much as I blame the weather. It has been very hot and exceedingly humid– oppressively, suffocatingly so. And there it was, my beautiful loaf of sour dough bread exhibiting green growth. Yuk! Even in discarding food we try to find uses for it. Beth took it out for the birds. It wasn’t long before they found it and she came to me with what she had observed.

One of the birds had a large piece of bread in his beak. Another bird swooped down and then another and another. They went after the morsel that their counterpart had instead of the remainder of the loaf. Beth was amused and I was dumbfounded. Seriously? The other birds couldn’t break off their own chunks?

A great passage of scripture to read today is John 6:25-59. I’m going to pluck out a simple portion and put it in a nut shell for today’s post: Jesus said the Father gives true, life giving bread from Heaven. Jesus is that bread. Whoever goes to Him will never be hungry or thirsty and will live forever. There’s enough of Jesus to go around. We can all easily have our abundant portion. But He explicitly spoke of those who come to Me. We’re not called to be feasted upon by others. It’s up to us as individuals to go to Jesus and receive everything He has for us. Otherwise, we’re the tormenting birds trying to pilfer from others when what they have could readily be ours if we’d only go to the Source.

Who has come to steal from you? Who is pecking at the tasty morsel you have in your mouth? Is it a person? Health problems? Money woes? Your place of employment? Ah, look more closely. It is not the face before you that challenges the blessing of your Bread but the spirit of satan. He is the author of discord, disease, lack, and death. Jesus is the Author of life, and life more abundantly. Will we continue to let the enemy swoop in and peck at us and our gifts from God? Or will we resist?

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 KJV

You do what you want, but I’m not surrendering to the birds. I’m submitting to God and resisting the devil. I hope you’ll join me and do the same. I’ve discovered the Bread is delicious and I’m not giving Him up for anything.