Seeking Our Daily Bread

 “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)

One of the things that we absolutely had to make sure we brought with us when we moved from North Carolina back to South Carolina was our bluebird house. In fact, the very first load from our storage unit to our new house included the bluebird house, which I promptly set up in our yard.

For the first couple of years when we were in North Carolina, we had no birds use the birdhouse in our backyard. But in 2020 and 2021 we had at least three families nest, hatch, and fledge from the house: two chickadee families, and one bluebird family. We loved watching the birds take up residence, carrying grass clippings and other nesting material. Then we would wait patiently for signs that the eggs had hatched. We would notice much more frequent trips to and fro by the mother bird, as well as more frequent visits from the father bird in the case of the bluebirds. The mother birds would be carrying seeds or bugs in their beaks (or mealworms that Carol had placed on nearby feeders).

Every once in a while we were fortunate enough to see a tiny head from one of the chicks peek out from the birdhouse, obviously waiting for its next meal. On even more rare occasions, I was able to get a picture of the baby bird. In the nest, the baby birds look only to the mother to for nourishment. They depend wholly on their mother to give them what they need to live.

"Bless the Lord... who satisfies your desires with good things."

(Psalm 103:1, 5) 

Where do you turn for what you need to live? On what or Whom do you depend for life itself? In the middle of the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray we find the simple petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That simple petition is the acknowledgment that we depend on God. When we pray that petition, we are asking God for the physical and spiritual resources we need in order to live.

That simple petition, “Give us this day our daily bread,” refocuses our heart. It reminds us that we have a good and loving God who provides us with what we need and who nourishes us, body and soul. To pray that petition is to affirm that God is the object of our faith and trust in our pursuit of health and well-being and happiness and satisfaction.

The psalmist urges us, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – ...who satisfies your desires with good things.” (Psalm 103:1-2, 5) To pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” is to recognize that it is God to whom we look to satisfy the desires of our hearts. 

And because God is good and loving and compassionate, then we expect that God will answer us by satisfying our desires with good things.

And that is a good thing.