Living in abundance...

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt!  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into the desert to starve this entire assembly to death."  The Lord said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.  Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread.  Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.' "  That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost appeared on the desert floor.  When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?"  For they did not know what it was.  Moses said to them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat."  Each morning everyone gathered as much as was needed and when the sun grew hot, it melted away."
~ Exodus 16: 2-3, 11-15, 21

There is something about mornings like today that seem to draw me to a different place.  No clouds in the sky, and the sun illuminating things in a way that I seem to see things more clearly.  Dew drenches everything.  Autumn leaves, and a few flowers, seem to announce that they have discovered common ground in my back yard.  The light of the sun illumines both, and I am reminded once again of how the sun shines in my back yard the same way it does in the yard of a stranger halfway around the world.  

My mind drifts, and I wonder if the stranger is thinking similar thoughts?  

Our connectedness should be intentional.  Our understanding of abundance and need, pain and joy, separation and reconciliation, hatred and love, are essentially part of our connectedness.  It's generally not until we have forgotten our "commonness," that we stray and turn away from one another.

This morning I am reminded that the world contains enough resources for every single person living.  There is enough for everyone, more than enough: food, knowledge, love ... everything.  If we live with the mindset of abundance, then we suddenly begin to realize the importance of sharing what we have with others.  When we see a hungry person on a concrete intersection, we give them food.  When we meet someone who has not encountered a problem we have overcome, we share our knowledge.  We offer friendship and hospitality when we meet those who need love.  

When we live in the mindset that the same sun that illuminates my backyard, provides light on the pathway of a stranger on the other side of the world, then I arrive at a place where I begin to understand how we can all live in abundance together, and when we do, there will be more to our lives that we ever expected.

Stay in God's grip!

G. Todd Williams (c) 2020