This Daily Bread

One of my favorite artists to connect with on social media is Lori Hetteen, a Minneapolis-based self-described “haikuish” poet. She is witty and gentle in the same breath, and her work usually makes me pause. However, the other day, her work stopped me in my scroll and a single sentence lead me straight to a revelation.

Her art shares: “And for how long, love?” “I can only say for now. And now, and now, and…”

In the caption under the image, Lori writes, “We are given this moment. This tick of the clock. This daily bread.”

This daily bread.

I have heard “this daily bread” countless times in my life, saying it in the Lord’s Prayer, before meals, during communion. But for some reason on this day, the way Lori wrote it, struck me.

This daily bread.

I think I always interpreted “Give us today our daily bread” as actual food to sustain us. Bread is shown often in the Bible as a symbol for God’s provision, from manna raining down in the desert for 40 years to Jesus multiplying bread and fish to feed a crowd to the Last Supper as a symbol of Jesus’ work of salvation and love. In fact, bread is mentioned in the Bible at least 492 times. (I always love finding those facts.) We see bread as a symbol for meeting our basic physical needs. When we say the Lord’s Prayer and ask God to provide our daily bread, we are asking Him for what we need.

What caught me off guard the day I read Lori’s poem is the thought of “daily bread” actually being grace. The grace of a fresh start, a new moment, this sunrise, daily. God’s grace given to me daily.

God is feeding our souls with this daily bread. God is giving us His salvation every single day and is allowing us to spiritually live. Filling our souls and nourishing our hearts with grace and salvation. Every single day of our lives is a chance to trust God will give us what we need physically and spiritually. In our daily bread, God is promising what we need – for our bodies and our souls – without fail, every day.

This daily bread.

In these days when it feels like the weight of the world hangs heavy, it can be hard to cherish the little things or celebrate your own happy moments. Another poem from Lori says, “We are naming the future in these days and despite the weighty task we could just agree to be very, very bold and christen the whole thing joy.” It has felt extremely difficult to not be bogged down by the headlines every day of sickness, fires, elections, earthquakes… We could certainly keep complaining about this year, but I vote we celebrate the joys in life and thank God for allowing us to spiritually live. I’ll go first: I am fulfilled by the joy of a hike in the Sawtooths, by a full table of close friends sharing delicious food, by the first sip of coffee with a perfect amount of cream in it.

After everything, you are free to embrace this glorious day. There is God’s grace in this moment.