Taste what's new

When we reflect on the seasons of nature...
as we might gaze upon pictures of a calendar,
the colors of winter, spring, summer and fall
often seem striking and grand in their glory.

But cause us to stand in the middle of our own season of change...
and the gazing stops, because that's a whole lotta,
"No, and pass the comfort of yesterday, please and thank you!"

For some reason those don't seem to come in the same pretty colors.
And while sometimes I want to do some finger pointing at the children of Israel for all their complaining just after the Lord led them out of Egypt, I have to say that I've done my fair share of the same in my life.

When I find myself in a wilderness...
a season of change,
a place that seems foreign, strange,
different, difficult and challenging,
I often want to turn back to something more familiar.
Even if I know it's not what is best for me.
But just because it's something comfortable that I KNOW.

And that's again where we find the Israelites...
complaining.
And maybe why God calls them the children of Israel.
Because that's often what we sound like when we complain.

In Exodus 16, they are at it again when they don't have the luxury of all the fine foods they did in Egypt.  And yet God promises to provide bread from heaven.  Now that's some pretty crazy miracle kind of stuff. But instead of being in awe... they just said... "What is it?"
And that's how we get the word, MANNA.
It literally means, "what is it?"

I wonder what it was like...
for that first person to pick it up off the ground and put it in their mouth?
All the people standing around in the morning, scratching their heads, rubbing their eyes, looking around at the ground. Then one bold person is willing to try it.

And it was like white coriander seed,
and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
Exodus 16:31
Someone picked it up, trusted God, and put...
"what is it," in his mouth.
And it was sweet as honey.

Isn't God good?
For He didn't have to even make it taste good.  All that was needed was to sustain them... to fill their stomachs, to keep them from starving.
But God made it sweet.
Even in the time of, "what is it," and before, "thank You."

I know that there are things I don't understand that God has before me now.
I look at them and say... "what is it?
I am in the middle of this new season...
and it truly feels like a wilderness where there are new things I do not understand. I've been waiting for God to show me the what, why and how...
And today I realized that maybe He's actually waiting on me.

He has provided.
And I am not to stand around waiting for Him
to unpack everything and show me
what it is,
how to use it,
where to put it...
I'm supposed to take a bite!
I'm supposed to taste and see...
to learn for myself "what it is!"

Even in the  wilderness...
the season of change,
the place that seems foreign, strange,
different, difficult and challenging...
God wants me to stop seeing the problem,
as a mystery, or a hard thing...
God is saying,...
Lisa, If you will only take a bite...
you may find that it is sweet
and it will sustain you.

For God fed the Israelites manna for 40 years.
What if that someone had never taken the first bite?

Word of God... train me, today...
to trust God in what He provides,
to find out what it is... even when I am afraid.

Lord, You have provided new things in times of change.
Give me courage to learn, to grow, to adapt.
For You will make my life sweet.
I trust in You.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Psalm 34:8