Bread Crumbs

Have you noticed how often God chooses to provide with “crumbs” when He could have just as easily supplied a “whole loaf of bread?”

This morning I dug through my journals, a collection of my personal prayers, favorite Bible promises and miracle stories. I picked up the oldest and fattest journal. Inside was a wad of folded papers. After twenty years I was curious as to what they were. I was awash in mixed emotions as I unfolded them. Each sheet of paper was riddled with holes from once being pinned above my desk. At the top of each page was the year, the month and then written in bold, “Blessings!”

The first page (of twelve) had Psalms 106:2 scribbled on the top left-hand corner. “Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise Him half enough?” The right-hand corner had, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.” Psalm 106:1

Each page had simple entries such as “someone gave us a bag of tomatoes” or “I found a winter coat on sale for $3 etc.” On a couple of pages I had scribbled along the edge “hard month.”

Although it is fun to tell our favorite miracles stories of how God dramatically came through at the last minute, the bigger story really is how He built our faith using “crumbs,” reserving the “whole loaf” for special occasions. Despite the fact that those were hard years I would never trade them…they were the sweetest times teaching us that God can be trusted!

Our daughters are grown and have homes of their own. My heart swells as I see God providing “crumbs.” Today I gave one of our daughters money to purchase her first journal to record their own stories.

Arriving home after making her purchase her husband met her at the door. She proudly showed him her beautiful journal. An excited boyish grin covered his face. “You have something to write in it today!” he exclaimed. “I got a job!” It was a “whole loaf of bread” kind of story.

“O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures… They all depend on you to give them food as they need it. When you supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them, and they are richly satisfied.” Psalm 104:24, 27 & 28 NLT