String Too Short to Use

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled String Too Short to Use, was written by Tim Gustafson. Aunt Margaret's frugality was legendary. After she passed away, her nieces began the nostalgically bittersweet task of sorting her belongings. In a drawer neatly arrayed inside a small plastic bag, they discovered an assortment of small pieces of string.

The label read, String Too Short to Use. What would motivate someone to keep and categorize something they knew to be of no use? Perhaps this person once knew extreme deprivation. When the Israelites fled slavery in Egypt, they left behind a life of hardship. But they soon forgot God's miraculous hand in their exodus and started complaining about the lack of food. God wanted them to trust him. He provided manna for their desert diet, telling Moses in Exodus 16, The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. God also instructed them to gather twice as much on the sixth day, because on the Sabbath, no manna would fall. Some of the Israelites listened.

Some didn't, with predictable results. In times of plenty and times of desperation, it's tempting to try to cling, to hoard in a desperate attempt at control. There's no need to take everything into our own frantic hands, no need to save scraps of string, or to hoard anything at all. Our faith is in God, who has promised, Never will I leave you.

Never will I forsake you. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Exodus chapter 16 verses 21 through 30. Each morning, everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much, two omers for each person, and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. He said to them, This is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.

So bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning. So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. Eat it today, Moses said, because today is a Sabbath to the Lord.

You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any. Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath. That is why on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day.

No one is to go out. So the people rested on the seventh day. Let's pray. Father, please remind us of all the ways you've been faithful in the past, and help us to trust that you'll continue to be faithful in the future, just as you've promised. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen Tabor, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.