The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Hunger (11/08/04)
TITLE: Under The Coconut Tree
By Josephus van den Hoek
11/11/04
 LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
 SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
 SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND
Hunger is something that many of us simply never experience. Although we have all seen pictures of second world war Auschwitz prisoners and starving children in Ethiopia, many of us will never really understand what it is to go without food.

The worst situation that I can think of was a story my mother told me about her childhood. She was a child of missionaries living in the West Indies. At a certain time her father was away and food for the family became scarce. The cupboards were bare as was the fridge. Ones mouth began to water at the thought of food. There were no swollen bellies, tears or unbearable hunger pangs but there simply was no food and no money to buy it.

My grandmother called her children outside to the well set dinner table. That night they were going to sit outside under the coconut tree. The sea breeze soothed the skin after a day in the hot tropical sun. “But Mom, what are we going to eat my mother asked?”
“There is no food but we are going to pray that God will provide tonight” her mother replied. The family sat at the table waiting without food. The children looked at each other as if their mother was starting to “loose it.” However as the hunger pangs set in it became obvious that everybody would need to join in prayer or the evening, sitting out under the tree, was going to be wasted.

God would indeed provide. A local restaurant had had a cancellation for a banquet and the owner had an idea that the missionary family could really benefit from the food. The table had been set in expectation of Gods provision and on that day God certainly delivered.

Although we often think of food when we hear the word hunger we can also hunger for other things. How often do we feel hunger pangs for spiritual food? Do we really need it or can we go without ? Jesus showed us that we do indeed need spiritual sustenance when He said that we “cannot live by bread alone.” In fact He showed us that going without bread may strengthen, rather than weaken us.

Jesus is also referred to as the bread of life. His bread is not for our bellies but for our souls. His bread is the bread that we really cannot go without.