Some of my favorite Bible stories continue to be a few of those memories of when Jesus walked again after death. Some may think the disciples only imagined that He was on the seashore one morning, telling them to throw their fishing nets on the opposite side of the place where they had been fishing all night.
But that story doesn't end with Jesus standing far off from them on the seashore. Walking the earth again, Jesus called them to shore. And although He asked them to provide a few of the fish that they did wind up catching that morning, Jesus proved He already had, for them, what was needed that day. When the disciples made it to shore, Jesus was altered in appearance but very much there with them, and He already had prepared a meal over a fire by the sea.
That may be my favorite faith memory.
We don't have anyway of knowing whether that meal was well seasoned, with vegetables, beneficial herbs, and mineral-rich salt vital to life. We don't have anyway of knowing whether, in storytelling, it went without saying that many Hebrew meals were naturally seasoned, not always bland. We only know that the focus of that memory was Jesus, not so much what was for breakfast.
Living in difficult times now, countless refugees, such as those in Lesbos, Greece, have spent long years making do with very little. Many know there isn't much hope in risking life to travel back home. Syrian refugees, for example, know that, while fighting may be less a problem now at home, communities have been uprooted, and problems like rampant oil spills have caused a trend in cancer to develop quickly back home in Syria.
The love of Jesus says to pray for them, and even to live as if in prison with them (because living isolated on Lesbos island is a kind of prison existence).
Over the years, I've seen news of making bread in makeshift ovens there in Lesbos. But something I haven't seen is news of a Christian airdrop — like those airdrops of salt and other extras into camps of Sudanese refugees in Africa.
But, after so many years of empathetic feelings toward a world waiting on the love of Jesus, I'm one who decided, through prayer and provision, that the Lord is saying, now, to just live. Just model how to live, and don't worry. The world will work out its problems, and the Lord will work on yours.
One small way of trying to begin living more normally again began, for me, during the Easter season. I found purpose during a walk to a hospital, where I handed over an Easter basket that I'd made with all my heart.
Unlike the woman who went to prepare Jesus for bodily death (the "sinful" woman who poured tears and perfume onto Jesus' feet), I had life upon life upon life in heart on my walk to a hospital. I trusted Heaven for healing.
Then, looking to my own life, I found food seasonings marked down at a grocery store. I'd only planned to buy four seasonings: bay leaves, thyme, pepper with real lemon, and cinnamon, but, after two years without seasonings, I bought more than that. And, at first, I was as thankful for that decision as for the healing I was expecting at the hospital.
I was thankful.
At home, I made simple meals that seemed more like meals than anything I'd had in way of meals in a very long time. And I knew the seasonings were helping to lower blood pressure, to reduce oxidative stress, and to aid digestion. And one bonus was that I felt better mentally. I not only felt a little more enlivened through my muted senses; I felt more cared for, knowing God knew what we need in life and that He gave our food supplements "flavor" not to keep us bound in "pleasure" but to give us incentive to take care of ourselves well.
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27)
I was thankful.
Our Heavenly Father provides. He really does.
He makes the way for us to live well, even in times of less.
He gives us the hope of life.
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