“For the Lord hath chosen Zion... I will bless her with abundant provision.” Ps. 132: 13, 15. God’s idea of abundance must be different than our typical ideas of abundance. Normally, when I think of abundance, I think of a heap of something stored up. A heap of money in the bank. An abundant supply of chips for the Superbowl party so I can crunch all the way through the fourth quarter. We are encouraged to store an abundant supply water for emergencies. My husband would call my collection of shoes “abundant.”
Yet underneath our desire for abundance--whether it be money, or chips, or water, or shoes--there’s always a hint of fear, the fear of being without.
In the wilderness, our ancestors experienced that fear. There was no food in the desert of Sinai. So Elohim blessed them with abundance! Every morning, there was as much manna as they could possibly want. They just had to go out and gather it.
Now here’s the part that shows that God’s definition of ‘abundant’ is very different from our human concept. Manna couldn’t be stored. You couldn’t preserve it in any way. There was no “heap of manna” stored anywhere. With the exception of the double portion that kept from Friday to Shabbat, you couldn’t even keep the stuff overnight! It’s as if everything in your fridge went bad overnight, but in the morning there were always fresh groceries delivered to your doorstep! You see, God’s idea of abundant is for you to have plenty of what you need right now. He doesn’t give a bunch of extra stuff to put in the closet for “some day.” He gives abundantly for today. And He wants you to trust that He’ll do the same tomorrow. Abundantly.
