‘Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread’
Living in the former Soviet Union was not easy. Carla Sunberg, in the book she co-wrote about her time there, tells a story of how when she first moved there, it was quite the culture shock when she experienced food shortages. Back in the U.S. food was easy to come by, but now suddenly it was a challenge to find enough food to feed her family. So she and a friend walked up to the bread store, and she couldn't figure out what was going on in this place - there was a long line and hardly any bread in sight.
When they got to the front of the line, all they got was a little ticket, which they took to a second line where they paid for their loaf, and then went back to the first line, where they eventually were given their loaf of bread. All in all it took about half an hour in the store for this one loaf, and Sunberg writes "we made our way to the door with our precious cargo, and when we reached the sunlight, Roy thrust the loaf of bread into the air, as if it were an Olympic torch and he had just won the marathon."
When Bread Becomes Precious
This experience showed her that for many of us, praying "give us this day our daily bread" doesn't mean much. In fact in most countries today, our bread can last a week or more with the preservatives that it's filled with, but that Russian bread would get mouldy very quickly after it was made. They learnt to be so grateful for something that many of us take for granted.
Sunberg writes: "In the fourth century, famine struck parts of the Roman world. Saint Basil the Great, trying to feed the poor, preached a sermon to those who were hoarding their wealth: 'The bread that is spoiling in your house belongs to the hungry. The shoes that are mildewing under your bed belong to those who have none. The clothes stored away in your trunk belong to those who are naked.' The wealthy had more than enough, while the poor were starving."
"I'm back in America now, and I can go to the supermarket and buy any type of bread I would like, and I don't even have to wait in line. I'm quite shocked that it can take weeks for the blue-green mould to appear! At the same time, I miss my Russian bread. And may I never forget what it truly means when we pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread.'"
Don't Take Your Blessings for Granted
Let me ask you: are you grateful for your daily bread? How blessed you are to eat today! Many around the world won't. Many will get a meagre loaf of bread that will get mouldy before long.
Don't take your blessings for granted. Fall on your knees in prayer today, and thank God for the small blessings. And if you pray "Give us this day our daily bread", why not ask God to give others their daily bread too?
