Morning Devotional
November  5, 2005
"100% Whole Wheat Bread"      
    by Don Emmitte

"A man scatters seed on the ground," Jesus observed. "Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29).

 

"Let me make sure," I mutter to myself at the check-out stand. "Diet Coke, coffee, M&M’s, and a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread.” I put it all down on the conveyor belt to check out. The register whirrs. The scanner beeps at the bar codes. And, I plunk down my money. "Thanks," I say to the checker. "Don't thank me," the grocery checker chuckles. "You pays your money, you takes your choice." (It is the deep south you know!)

 

That began my mind thinking about thanksgiving again. “No thanks needed?” I wonder how many of our forefathers thought there was no need to give thanks? I rather doubt any of them weren’t acutely aware of the need to be thankful. Times were hard. They had to toil for the little food they were able to grow and save for the hard times of winter. It shouldn’t be any wonder that the Pilgrims gave thanks.

 

But the average person lives too far from the soil to awe at amber waves of grain. I had glanced at my watch and tapped my foot while the checker worked slowly through the loaded grocery cart ahead of me. So what's to be thankful for? Shorter lines? Yes, for starters. People stand in lines for hours in Moscow to buy fresh fruit. The selection on our supermarket shelves would boggle the mind of a Mexican villager.

 

We thank God for a job to pay for our food--thousands are out of work. We thank God for a warm home and a table to eat at-the homeless live out of their cars at the park. "But I work hard for what I have," you object. Yes, so does the Chinese peasant bending over in a cold rice paddy.

 

You pays your money, but you can't buy health. You pays your money, but you can't buy a son or a daughter. You pays your money, but you can't buy rain to water crops in Peoria and Des Moines. Thank you God, for the gifts you've given which I have no inherent right to. Make me genuinely grateful. Amen.