Bread Rained Down From Heaven

S and KH had promised to bake their humongus bread for us in Wuhan. Warm, crispy, freshly baked french loaf for breakfast ..... also banana-walnut bread, white milk bread, pancakes ..... spread with home-made strawberry jam and kumquat jam, air-flown yakun kaya ..... washed down with a cup of aromatic starbucks or ipoh white coffee ..... How well they feted us!

Our Wuhan experience spurred each of us (K, LL and I) to try our hands (or rather the bread-making machine in the case of LL) at bread-baking back home. LL's french loaf tasted so good with her chicken curry. K's 'no-knead' bread looks so good, but alas, can only feast with my eyes.

Still, nothing is better-tasting than the bread that is "rained down from heaven", that tastes like "wafers made with honey" - bread that is not made by hand or machine but a gift from God, the Creator of all things. The Israelites called this bread from heaven "manna". God provided manna to the Israelites every day for forty years. (Ex 16:1-35)

Based on the first census taken two years after the exodus from Eygpt, there were 603,550 male Israelites 20 years or more (excluding the Levites) who were able to serve in Israel's army (Num 1:45). From this count of military strength, estimates put the total Israelite population at 2 to 3 million (http://www.keyway.ca/htm2001/20010121.htm). It would take a miracle to feed such a huge population in the desert where food is scarce, and to feed them every day for forty years! Only the Almighty God could perform this miracle and He did!

"Manna", the bread from heaven, can satisfy the physical need of the Israelites only one day at a time; none can keep the manna till the next morning (Ex16:19-20). There is another bread from heaven - the living bread that satisfies our eternal, spiritual need. Jesus is this living bread. The Bible teaches that "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deu 8:3, Matt 4:4). We need the spiritual nourishment that only Jesus can give.

"Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life, He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty .' " (John 6:35)

"48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:48-51)

Jesus is much more than the Bread of life. He is in every facet of our life. Dr Willmington writes:

To the baker, he is the Bread of life (John 6:35)
To the artist, he is the One altogether lovely (Song of songs 5:16)
To the architect, he is the chief Cornerstone (1 Pet 2:6)
To the astronomer, he is the Sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2)
To the banker, he is the hidden treasure (Matt 13:44)
To the builder, he is the sure foundation (Isa 28:16)
To the carpenter, he is the door (John 10:7)
To the doctor, he is the great Physician (Jer 8:22)
To the educator, he is the new and living way (Heb 10:20)
To the farmer, he is the sower and the Lord of the harvest (Luke 10:2)
(Source: Willmington's Guide to the Bible)

Who is Jesus to me? He is my everything.