WHAT?!?!?

O.K., this is kind of funny. Well, not funny - funny, but at least interesting funny. I helped out in Savannah’s 2nd grade Sunday School class yesterday. The story for the day was about God providing manna for the Isrealites after they had left Egypt.

The craft was to draw a picture of an Isrealite picking up the manna and then we glued Frosted Flakes (aka manna) onto the picture. I was seriously hoping the “manna” would continue to be provided because there was lots of sampling going on among the kids.

When we got to the big group and the teacher was telling the story, I learned something I had never known before about that story (yes, quite possibly because it was right on my level!!). She said that the word manna literally means “What is it.” I think that is funny. You know the Isrealites looked out the first time they saw manna and were like “WHAT?!? You’re kidding me, right? That little fluffy looking food is going to fill us up?” (kind of reminds me of the whole portion control thing from a few days ago). God knew exactly what and how much they needed and provided that for them. And from the sounds of it, his “answer” was not were they were expecting at all.

I was wondering how many times we have prayed for something (like the Isrealites did) and then the answer (manna) came in such a form that we were like, ‘‘WHAT?!? What is it?" We’ve all heard the expression “God answers prayer, it’s just not always in the way you were praying for it to happen.” But I think another way to put that would be…. “God answers prayer and be prepared for the unexpected.” Be prepared to say “WHAT?!?” and then often much later to gain understanding. His ways are SO much higher than our ways.

And as always, He knows just what we need and just when we need it.