Need Manna?

Manna…a word that’s not often used in today’s times.  I’m hoping, after all is said and done, that the whole world will know what the word “manna” stands for…

Well, it comes from the Bible.  That’s what the Israelites said when they saw this dew-like stuff on the desert ground while they were lost.   Imagine: you are lost, hungry, sleepy, and a bit cranky.  And, did I say hungry?  Then, as you wake up, and the sun is beginning to rise over the desert (a place that you really don’t want to be, particularly for 40 years), you see this thin, whitish, clearish, stuff on the ground.  It wasn’t there the night before, but there it is the next day.  So, I imagine that they were a bit surprised.  So, a form of the word “manna” suggests that they were surprised and didn’t know what it was.  I’m sure that I wouldn’t have known what it was, and I’m not so sure that my first inclination would have been to eat it.  However, that’s what they had.  And that was their food.  Day after day after day…after day.

HOWEVER…if it wasn’t for the manna, which, by the way, is supposed to have tasted like honey and wafers, the people would have died of malnutrition.  Apparently, they could bake it and boil it and make it into a bread-like form.  So, out of necessity, they ate it.  It turned out to be a “gift from God” that helped them survive as they trekked FOR-EVER in the hot, ongoing, stinky, nasty desert. 

So, why do we use “manna” in our name?  Well, it is “daily bread” for those who cannot (or could not) do for themselves.  It suggests that we have a dependency on things that give us life.  We, as mere human beings, have a need to eat.  And be loved.  And to survive life’s trials and disappointments.  Our Manna Scholarship Fund (www.mannafund.org) is there to try and help those who are tapped out, trapped in the desert, and needing a source to help them regain the strength to eat and live a new life.

We can’t do this by ourselves.  However, as a nation that is “covered up” with people who are dying every day to be good enough, smart enough, and just plain “enough” for themselves and others, we are asking that you join us in supplying the Gift to others who otherwise would die. 

So, my friends, “what is it?”  It is a life-giving gift that provides hope, health, and a way out of the desert…