There’s bread, and then there’s Bread

lifeatctk ♦ August 10, 2015 ♦ Leave a comment

On Sunday, our school faculty were commissioned during worship. They are a wonderful crew of men and women who, in response to God’s calling, will spend this coming academic year teaching love and tough subjects while showing God’s mercy and grace to their children every day in a thousand different ways.  We saluted them, and we invited the congregation to wish them well at a reception in their honor between services, while munching on all manner of brownies, fruit, muffins, coffeecakes, and nut breads. Our awesome CTK bakers are the best.

Interestingly, during worship, Pastor’s sermon focused on the Bread of Life Jesus, using the passage from John 6 — “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  We were reminded that the trappings of life that are often so dear to us — our technology, the sports we enjoy, the celebrities we hold in awe, even the subjects we study in school — are but temporal and therefore temporary. These treats that we feast on spoil, fade away, are destroyed by time; they are “side dishes” which taste good and tempt us, but cannot fill us up in a lasting way. Jesus alone, in His living bread, gives us sustenance that lasts for eternity. Through Him, we gain eternal nourishment.

As we look at the remaining morsels from the reception, we are reminded of the temporal vs. the eternal. Those yummy brownies are gone; the sausage balls have been devoured. It was fine while it lasted. Everything tasted good for a while (even the oatmeal-chocolate chip cake about which I had my doubts). But by mid-afternoon, we were hungry again, venturing out to the new restaurant in our neighborhood to see what new thing might be on the menu to tempt our tastebuds. With Jesus, though, we know we will never face a spiritual hunger or thirst. He assures us, as He did the Samaritan woman at the well, that as we taste the Living Bread and drink from His spring of living water which wells up into eternal life (John 4:14), we will live forever in Him, wanting for nothing.  We praise God that He has brought us this cadre of professional teachers who love their Lord, love the children, and will teach them not only the joys of art, music, literature, history, science, social studies and physical education, but the eternal joys we will receive from the Bread of Life.

Thanks be to God!