Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Elim Acres
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.
Green Acres, it’s the place to be!
I have a picture of our proud papa standing in front of an aerial photograph of our farm, which Aunt Mary suggested be named Elim Acres (place of strong trees). So Elim Acres it became. The place to be!
The photograph has faded over time, and things have changed a bit. No cattle anymore, but an asphalt driveway. Several of the trees around the house have been cut down, and others planted. Most of all, Mom and Dad are no longer with us.
It’s true, the people in the pictures are what make them matter. The whole Sandel community set out from Elim. Like every family we enter into the Desert of Sin. But our family was blessed with understanding of God’s forgiveness – that this is the blessing. We can be grateful, but we don’t need to ask for this; it’s been given.
Present yourselves before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.
The Israelites were hungry and thirsty, and they did not believe God would save them. Sinfulness isn’t the property of any one family or community. We all partake, we all fall. So God rescues us all.
The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. He spoke. “I have heard the grumbling of the children of Israel. In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the Lord, am your God. Then in the evening quail came and covered the camp, and when the morning dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes of bread.
This feeding of the more than 5000 continued day after day.
They tempted God in their hearts by demanding the food they craved. Man ate the bread of angels. He rained meat upon them like dust. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
These stories from the desert prove themselves at Elim Acres as well. Deep prayer, hard work, rain, sunshine and seed for the sower continue every year to produce beautiful crops of food for livestock and humanity. This miracle is reproduced on farm after farm all over the world. We may not distribute the harvest evenly or efficiently, but God rains down his blessing nevertheless. Year after year after year.
Seeds fell on the path, some on rocky ground, some fell among thorns. But still there was seed to plant in rich soil, where it produced fruit, a hundred, sixty, or thirtyfold.
Our bodies must be fed. God’s gift to us, however badly we abuse it and however uncertain the specifics are from year to year and place to place, is always given. Like rain on the place beneath. On the just and unjust. God’s generosity with the manna and the quail, like his endless fountain of forgiveness and mercy, has graced our lives in the beginning, and now, as it always shall be.
(Exodus 16, Psalm 78, Matthew 13)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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