We are involved now in...
Illustration
"We are involved now in a profound failure of imagination. Most of us cannot imagine
the wheat beyond the bread, or the farmer beyond the wheat, or the farm beyond the
farmer, or the history beyond the farm. Most people cannot imagine the forest and the
forest economy that produced their houses and furniture and paper; or the landscapes, the
streams and the weather that fill their pitchers and bathtubs and swimming pools with
water. Most people appear to assume that when they have paid their money for these
things they have entirely met their obligations" (from Wendell Berry, "Thoughts In The
Presence of Fear," in Orion magazine).
Walk into the bakery section of any supermarket, and you'll be faced with a bewildering variety of choices: not just the old choices of white, whole wheat, or rye, but seeded or unseeded, lite or regular, 7-grain or 12-grain, and so on. Almost gone from our thinking is the understanding of bread as simply bread: "the staff of life," a staple food item, the product of God's generous provision for our lives, fashioned by the hands of others into something nourishing. It is this simpler, more universal idea Jesus is referring to when he says, "I am the bread of life."
Walk into the bakery section of any supermarket, and you'll be faced with a bewildering variety of choices: not just the old choices of white, whole wheat, or rye, but seeded or unseeded, lite or regular, 7-grain or 12-grain, and so on. Almost gone from our thinking is the understanding of bread as simply bread: "the staff of life," a staple food item, the product of God's generous provision for our lives, fashioned by the hands of others into something nourishing. It is this simpler, more universal idea Jesus is referring to when he says, "I am the bread of life."
