Watermelon

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (Numbers 11:4-6)

These verses make me laugh. God has given the Israelites manna, life-sustaining manna, and while it's perhaps not as good as, say, lasagna, it's still a supernatural gift from heaven. But what to the Israelites do? They complain. They look fondly back to when they were slaves in Egypt, abused and enslaved. At least then they had fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic!

As a huge fan of those six foods, I can sympathize. Wandering aimlessly in the desert with just enough manna to sustain me, or eating catfish and watermelon and cucumbers and anything with onions and garlic ... hmmm ...

A picture of some watermelon I bought. I have no idea why I took this picture.

But seriously, I'm struck by how familiar the Israelites' complaints seem to be. On one hand, it's a little shocking to read that they're dissatisfied--after God has visited Egypt (and spared their people) with ten plagues, after he has parted the Red Sea for their escape, after he has made his presence known multiple times in the desert. After all that, they want to go back, just so they can get some good food?

I don't think it's just about food. There is comfort in the familiar, even when the familiar is an uncomfortable place. I remember in my college years, when the melancholy of depression would start to move in on me, I felt a combined sense of both dread and repose; depression was miserable, but at the same time, it was a kind of home. And while I wanted to run from it, I also wanted to lean into it because it was familiar, and at least I knew the lay of the land there.

It can be so tempting to forget the blessings we experience now because we're so focused on what used to be, or what we imagine things should be. Let's try to focus on the blessings we have now, in this weird and uncertain and unfamiliar time. Those blessings may be harder to discern, they may not seem as awesome as the riches we had before ... but they're there, and they are from God. Let's use them to His glory.