Eating Wisdom's Bread: Advent Meditation #1

Godly wisdom is edible.  Lady Wisdom invites us to a meal: “Come, eat of my bread…leave your simple ways and walk in the way of insight.” (Prov. 9:5,6)  Mary proclaims that meal’s effects: “He has filled the hungry with good things.” (Luke 1:53)

So what kind of bread am I eating this Advent?  What spiritual substance is filling my soul in this season of preparation?

The bread of forgiveness.  The “love covers a multitude of sins” forgiveness.  I recently found myself in a situation where I had to say, “What is at stake is far more important than what has been taken from me. Release the debt, Carla.”  In so doing, joy filled the place where the yeast of resentment was more than ready to rise. 

The bread of guidance.  Just do the next thing.  Celtic Daily Prayer said it so well this morning:

‘Follow Me.’

‘Yes, Lord, I’ll follow You…But, Lord…’

‘Yes?’

‘Where to? Where will I be going?’

‘With Me.’

When I stop striving to get on top of what I cannot see, and rest content in doing what is right in front of me, focusing on the presence of Jesus with me NOW, the bread of undistracted peace fills my soul.

The bread of patience—with myself, others, and my God.  Stirrings within myself that I do not understand, responses of those I love that I cannot read, and a God who is, at times, incomprehensible.  I wait.  For while this bread is not my favorite recipe, nothing appears to be more nourishing in the long run.

It is Advent. We wait, allowing God’s forgiveness to feed our souls and extending part of the same loaf to our neighbor. We wait, doing what is set in front of us and receiving our daily bread—we were never promised a year’s supply at once.  And we wait, in patience for the coming of the baby who IS the bread of heaven. Take. Eat. Live.

Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high, 


Who orders all things far and nigh; 


To us the path of knowledge show, 


and teach us in her ways to go. 


Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel 
Shall come to you, O Israel!