You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. (Psalm 145:16 NIV)
Moses and the children of Israel ate manna from heaven as they wandered in the wilderness. In the Gospel of John, Jesus feeds five thousand people. Are you hungry? This verse from Psalm 145 says that God will satisfy “the desires of every living thing.”
“Imagine this scenario. Your choir has spent the past few weeks or months learning a challenging anthem. After much rehearsal, you sing it in worship. You all sensed that it went very well. Then, at next week’s rehearsal, your director says: ‘I think your singing of last Sunday’s anthem was satisfactory.’ Satisfactory? This feels a little bit like coming home from elementary school and showing your parents a report card filled with a row of Ss. Sure, this is better than Us for unsatisfactory, but a row of Es for excellent would have been the best. Satisfactory? Well, that just sounded like the middle of the road, enough to get by.
Satis est is a Latin phrase meaning ‘It is enough.’ From this root we have the familiar words satisfied or satisfactory. In gospel of John, Jesus performs an amazing sign: five small loaves and two fish feed five thousand people. It doesn’t seem like much, but many translations of John’s gospel notes that these eaters ‘were satisfied.’ Even more, there were twelve baskets of leftovers!
Enough is simply what it is: enough. Yet so often we crave more. We try to fill the hungry spaces in our hearts and lives with whatever and whomever can fill them. Perhaps the essence of a life of faith is trusting that we are satisfied, that in Christ and by the power of his life-giving Spirit, we indeed have enough. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. (Psalm 145:16 NIV) May it be so among us.1
1. Baker-Trinity, Jennifer. Soli Deo Gloria. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2011) pg. 94.
All Who Hunger Gather Gladly
All who hunger, gather gladly;
Holy manna is our bread.
Come from wilderness and wandering.
Here in truth we will be fed.
You that yearn for day sof fullness,
All around us is our food.
Taste and see the grace eternal.
Taste and see that God is good.
(by Sylvia Dunstan © 1991 GIA Publications, Inc.)
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