Feed Me, Lord . . . But Hold the Wheat, Please

While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would fill them. // Psalm 81:16 

In my current season of life, I can’t help but chuckle whenever I read this verse. As I type these words, I’m trying to enjoy my newly purchased gluten-free bread that’s about the size of a tea sandwich and looks more like something I nabbed out of my nieces’ play food set. Hey, I said I was trying.  

When my nutritionist suggested I temporarily avoid gluten in hopes that it might alleviate my nagging GI issues, I was less than thrilled. Like the Israelites in today’s First Reading (see Numbers 11), I lamented all the things I could no longer savor: the pasta, the crackers, the bakery-style rolls—basically, the “best of wheat” promised to me in Scripture. In my mind’s eye, I beheld a playful image of Jesus handing me a loaf of luxurious-looking bread and me asking with hesitancy, “But is it gluten free?” 

In my ravenous grasping for what I couldn’t have, I failed to receive what God knew I needed: food that would do no harm. Food that would satisfy. Food given from the deepest expression of love in His Heart.  

Dear one, the earthly things we hunger for pale in comparison to God’s hunger for us—hunger that manifests itself in a total gift of self. Isn’t it sweet to know that we are fed by the One Who doesn’t skimp on the very best He has to offer? Yes, sister, the fine wheat of Christ’s perfect love satisfies every human privation under the sun.  

Even when the bread and pasta are gluten free.