Enough for a Day

While reading my devotions for the day, I stumbled across a verse that started me thinking. 

"Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down

 bread from heaven for you. The people are 

to go our each day and gather enough 

for that day."

                                           -Exodus 16:4

It reminded me of this past year, starting right after Dad's cancer diagnosis. We had to....no choice in the matter.... we had to take everything one day at a time. It simply was too overwhelming to try and look at the whole picture or the ramifications of what could, or could not, happen. In that moment I had enough for then and that was all I learned to need. Enough. We, as a family, didn't need to think into the future. We needed to focus on the time we had in that day to enjoy, live, love, laugh, and breathe. Looking into the future spoiled all the peace of the moment. 

It is not that we ignored what might be coming or turned a blind eye to the changes, but rather we would choose to trust. Trust God to give us what we need when the future becomes the present. Trust God for peace, trust him for love, trust him for comfort, trust him to work it out according to his perfect will, trust him with the plan for my life, my dad's life, and my family. 

Yet the hardest, most mind boggling part of this story it the trust the Israelites had to place in God. They were instructed not to gather more than what they needed for the day, and the few that did ended up regretting it the next day. Rather, they needed to trust that God would provide one day at a time. I can only imagine what the first few days felt like...so hungry and enjoying what God has blessed you with, but non-stop question like "will we receive manna again tomorrow?" keep invading your thoughts. Over time I am sure that it got easier, just as my trust for enough to deal with the day ahead became easier as time went on and God proved himself faithful.

It is interesting the peace and freedom I found in living day to day. There were no long term plans made because things could change on a dime and I needed to be available to drop everything and be there. There were no long vacations or times when I would go without seeing my brothers, sister, and parents, rather we had family dinners, attended sporting events together, supported each other, and loved on one another. I am curious what the world would be like if more individuals decided to focus on the day to day, trusting in God for the future rather than micromanaging our schedules with plans for 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, and 5+ years from now. Lives and schedules can change drastically within the space of a moment.
 
Each day God gave me, and us as a family, enough strength, peace and reassurance for that day. No more and no less. God was faithful and He didn't let me down. Nor do I think that he ever will. So for today....I have enough.