Hungry for meat and steady food to sustain them on their way, the Israelites prayed and fussed and complained about their status on the trek to the Promised Land. “Give us meat!” And the quail came. But what they did not know was that in this part of the world the quail always came. Quails in that part of the world winter in Africa and migrate northward in the spring in vast conveys. It is an exhausting flight, done in stages, and we read that when the birds alight to take a rest, they are often so exhausted they can easily be picked up. But in this ordinary event the Hebrews see the sacred, the hand of God, the deliverance of the Almighty.
It was the same with manna. For many years it was thought that the manna was a substance produced from the tamarisk bushes. In fact, in early Christian centuries, some Greek monks lived in the Sinai on the sweet manna from the tamarisk bushes. A chemical analysis reveals that the manna contains a mixture of three very basic sugars with pectin. The sap of the tamarisk bush is rich in carbohydrates but low in nitrogen. This manna is produced much like honey from the bee is developed, but God uses a different insect. In this ordinary event, the sacred is clearly seen.
We need, in our developed world, to find in the ordinary the presence of the sacred. Burning bushes, failing quail, and mysterious “manna,” which means “what is it?”must be placed in the context of God making the normal spiritual.
If we are not developing our spiritual sensitivities, then we will be like the people of Jesus’ day who always were looking for signs. They looked at Jesus, who was flesh-and-bone, and demanded signs of God’s grace and presence. “What sign can You give us that would prove God is here?” The fact that He was a man, the ordinary, the everyday, caused them to stumble and they were unable to see Him the Divine. “Let God knock us off our feet and we will believe.” Is it not enough that a man stands before them who heals broken hearts, inspires confidence from inferior spirits, and makes acceptable the outcasts, drown fear in floods of love, and knits up the unraveled wounds of the human dilemma?
Are not these miracles in the mundane? Is not the sacred in the ordinary? “The new manna for the journey of life is the vision to see the Divine in the daily and the holy in the humdrum, the godly in the gabble.” When we understand this, then we will become the superordinary in the ordinary, the new manna, the light to the world, a city set on a hill, and the salt of the earth. We will stop constantly looking for God to show us a sign. We will be WAITING! Remember, the old manna was not meant for keeping for another opportunity. It was meant for daily use. When we attempt to save it for tomorrow, what was meant for using today, it spoils. We try to make entertainment worship; we try to make our worship Divine by claiming it is for the family; we make our prejudices Biblical!
Either waiting to use tomorrow what was meant for use today or trying to turn the ordinary into the sacred instead of seeing the sacred in the ordinary can spoil the manna.
We are called to be saints, believers who are sacred in the ordinary and become the new manna. With a little courage we become the new manna for the world and for our Christ!
