Just What We Need

When our hands are empty, 
fill them up, we pray— 
not too much, 
not too hearty a ration, 
or we may topple 
and then fall.

You set the table in desert lands
as well as on mountaintops.
We need you!
When poverty strips away
our access to food
it’s you we call!

And you come, Father, to your kids
and feed them with just
what they need.
You said you would! You do
provide in your time
what is good.

When your loved ones lose their way
you pursue with mercy.
You find us,
fill our cups to the brim
just like you said
you would.

We set our hope on your manna,
what you provide every day,
sustaining us.
We pray that our siblings
will have it too,
as they should.

Reading through Numbers lately has underlined again for me how prone we all are to complaining. What we get may be adequate, but just not what we really think we deserve. They had daily manna, which evidently had a sweet delicious taste, but they got tired of it. “Why don’t we have all the variety we used to have in Egypt?” they grumbled. Each time there were consequences to their ungrateful attitude. God was saving them from slavery, bringing them to the land he had promised them, but the journey was long and tiring. They let their yearnings overwhelm gratitude for this rescue.

When we have too much good stuff, we may stop realizing that all of it is a gracious gift from God. We may stop depending on him and think that our own efforts have brought us prosperity. When we have just barely what we need, or not what we think we need, we may get surly and complain. But if we are walking close to our Provider, we turn to God and beg for his help. It does remind us that we are dependent on him. And we learn to be grateful for all the “small” ways he is showing us that he is paying attention to our predicament. He knows and he cares. Like the sauce that is being poured onto rice in the photo from a church feast in Tiepogovogo, he knows what blessing to pour onto us and how much would be the right  amount at that moment.

One day in October as my sister-in-law and I walked along the gravel road surrounding Piatt Lake, in the forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, suddenly a doe leaped out of a driveway on the left and kept loping into the woods on the right. She was out of sight, but what an unexpected gift she was for us! Her calm swift response and grace as she lifted her body into the air gave us joy. Then I wondered: what was she looking for down by that cabin? Was she hungry? desperate?

Autumn is indeed the season when the animals and birds prepare for winter. It is amazing how what they find now can sustain them. Squirrels are running all over the city here in Detroit, grabbing bits of this and that and scurrying away.

So it is with us, too, as we serve our Master wherever he has placed us. There are times when we can keep on keeping on, day by day, receiving just what is needed to maintain our productivity. But sometimes we see a winter coming as resources peter out and the scenery looks bleak.

It has been this way during the past few months for the Bible translation project that I’m involved in. Our Father has kept us forging ahead through thick and thin since 1998! We suffered several bleak seasons (war, cancer, back issues, fire) but each time the Lord pulled us through. The Nyarafolo people are a small ethnic group in Africa that few people in the United States have ever heard of, but the prayers and ongoing gifts of certain friends and churches who have never even met them provided the sustenance that allowed us to give the Nyarafolo two-thirds of the Word in their language: the Pentateuch, Psalms and New Testament iin 2021. The translation team did not want to leave it at that; they have a passion to complete the Old Testament too!

So we began pressing forward, applying for long-term support and extremely encouraged by the way so many donors kept on giving. Then we recently discovered that a source of major funding for this project, one that had brought us to that major finish line, was not going to be able to help us as planned.

Here we are, translating key books right now (Proverbs, Isaiah and Jeremiah), and hanging on a thread which is the hope that somehow the Lord will find a way to send us the sustenance needed for this critical season of searching. And we just heard that yes! He is sending what can take us through this “winter”—we will wait on him for ongoing provision after that! Even this much, all coming from individuals, is an amazing answer to prayer.

Are you needing some kind of sustenance right now? Maybe it is financial, maybe it is encouragement or healing . . . the list of needs we humans may face is long. We need to remember that our Father is our provider, the one who will accomplish his purposes. His love for us shows up in many ways we don’t even notice—rippling lake waters, bird calls, a doe’s graceful leap into the woods or a stunning sunset. Noticing them lifts our hearts and turns our eyes to the Creator and Sustainer of everything.

Practicing gratitude is also what should accompany our petitions (what we are begging God to do). So just as we are pleading with God to keep this translation project on the move, we are thanking God with all that is in us for his provision of just what is currently needed! Times may be hard, but each day is another gift that comes with his blessing. We really do need to focus on what truly matters, being grateful for our Lord’s gracious attention to his loved ones. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, a great reminder that comes every year. May every day also become a day of thanking God for everything!

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live– not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (Eph. 5:15-20 NIV)