Thanksgiving

The last two nights, telling themselves they had nothing good at home, Tim and his wife Maria had gone out to eat, but now Tim was at home by himself, having just got off work, and Maria would not be back for another two hours, so he decided to run the risk of going to the grocery store without her in an effort to avoid the painful added weight a third night out would leave on their credit card bill. He knew this was a dangerous move, she loved grocery shopping, and if Tim flew solo and made the trip to the store by himself it would leave Maria feeling like a child left by parents off to Disney World, but what else was he to do? He considered whether it were possible to make a quick trip and be back with enough time to prepare dinner before she got home. He knew he could if he hurried.

Pushing his shopping cart through the sliding automatic doors, Josh skirted a table of on-sale cosmetic items and approached the bread aisle. Rows of bagged loaves sat uniformly on layered shelves. Tim felt respect for the store manager’s commitment to organization; all the bread loaves were neatly labeled and set together each according to its own variety. He was overcome, as he often was on his trips to the grocery store, by the amazing array of choices, which made it difficult to decide which loaf he should buy, but rather than meeting this problem head-on, Tim began to zone-out.

People had depended on bread as sustenance for millennia, Tim thought to himself. The Lord’s Prayer was two thousand years old, and even it had said: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Of course, Tim remembered, people praying the Lord’s prayer were really asked for more than just bread itself, but for all life's necessities, for food and water, shelter, and companionship. “Our daily bread” could even be a prayer for spiritual needs.

Reminded of his own spiritual needs, and desperate to know that God was near to him, silently he began to pray, “God, give us enough of what we need to get through the day, whether it’s this piece of bread, or your Word falling on our ears like a tear from Your face reminding us that You are a real person, with real thoughts and emotions, and although we’ve pained You, yet You allow us to know You, granting us access into Your real self, Amen.”

Looking at his watch, Tim realized he was taking too long, so he rushed through the rest of his shopping, and, after buying a little more than he had intended, (his mother had warned him never to go grocery store shopping whenever he was hungry) he filled his car full, and drove back home.

He was only to happen upon an unpleasant surprise when, to his horror, Tim, pulling into their driveway, saw Maria taking grocery bags out of her car.

Of all the chances, Tim decried to himself. The one time he went to the store without his wife was the only time she left work early to go herself. Tim stepped out of his car. Maria saw the groceries in his back seat and realized what had occurred. She laughed light-heartedly in a way that reminded Tim how she had reacted when in college they had gotten caught by the attendant in the movie theatre for popping popcorn with a portable microwave under their seats, snuck in by means of Maria’s enormous purse. Tim knew he would never be able to laugh off worrisome situations in the way Maria did.

“Looks like we’ll have enough groceries for a while,” Maria said.

“Yeah, we’ll have to invite some people over for dinner,” he suggested with an effort at jocundity.

“Tim, you know what I haven’t had in a long time?” she asked him.

“I don’t know, what?” he responded, and to his amazement, she said,

“A good peanut butter and jelly sandwich”.

They sat at their table and each ate two delicious peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, and in that moment it suddenly struck Tim why, in the Lord’s Prayer, bread had come to represent what it did. In all his life, he could never remember when a meal had tasted this good, and what made the meal was the bread. Bread was the one food that was undeniably good, good as only a gift was good. And he was thankful for this gift.