Danny Schweers

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Bread and Variety

Bread has been a symbol of sustenance as well as boredom for many thousands of years.

When the tribes of Israel, fleeing from captivity in Egypt, were nearly dying of hunger in the desert, God rained down manna upon them — the bread of heaven. But soon, miraculous as this food was, people got bored with it and longed for variety.

This is one of the themes I touch on in the Photo Prayer that I sent out to my subscribers today. (They are such brave souls!)

o one wants the plainest of sandwiches — two slices of unadorned supermarket bread with nothing in between, with no fillings or spreads, just machine-made monotony. Sure, if two slices is all we have and we are very, very hungry, then two slices are a feast! Otherwise, we want variety — extras from garden, pasture, orchard, and ocean. We crave diversity. Our Father, give us today our daily bread and, if it pleases you, give us the bounty of your cornucopia — or make us very, very hungry. (Photo of bread slices drying before going into turkey stuffing.)
Click on the photo above to see it in a new window.

My prayer ends with a reference to the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer central to Christian spiritual practice. Significantly, the Lord’s Prayer asks only for bread, not for variety. If we are honest — a tall order! — we want bread and variety, just like those in the desert who were living on manna. We crave diversity.

Does the Lord’s Prayer teach us to be satisfied with bread and survival, to ask for nothing more, not to be tempted? Jesus was tempted in the desert. Hungry, he was tempted to turn the stones around him into bread. Instead, he replied to his tormentor that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God. If the Bible is any indication, that word encompasses a lot of variety and goes well with bread.

God, give us all Word sandwiches!

Click here to visit the Photo Prayer website.

 

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Danny Schweers teaches photography lessons in and around Wilmington, Delaware. To learn more, click here to contact him.

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