Heartfelt Hebrews, this summer’s Bible Reading Plan, invited readers to respond to readings and contemplation with a creative response. This year, Pastor Mike Stone (retired, Belmont) responded with this poem.

Holy Meal

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Unless of course you are God and you are: providing manna, feeding 5,000, or breaking bread with your disciples. Why is it that we have to add contingencies and conditions to what God freely gives?

Given for ALL 

A tender loving Father,
Gifts his children with food,
For the arduous journey of life,
Food none other than…
Himself.
Rather than graciously gobbling it up along the way,
Like manna,
They stop and ponder
Hoarding and
Drawing lines
Where there are none,
Issuing childish edicts
About taking
As to who, when, why and with whom,
Forgetting what He said…
“Take and eat”
Not…
Take and understand, take and confine, take and redefine.
But, “take and eat,”
And we,
Being never ready, never worthy;

Always grateful
It will never be simpler,
Nor more profound
Than that.
And only a GIFT,
When taken as such.

Thank you, Pastor Stone, for your faithful and beautiful creative responses!

If you missed this summer’s Bible reading plan, you can catch the blog posts on the Engage the Bible page.