Cloudy With a Chance of Manna

The kids discovered a new favorite movie last week - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I've heard mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it, possibly because I have never read the book on which it is based. They enjoyed it so much when we rented it that we took them to see it at our local dollar theater that Saturday.

Then, Saturday evening, we sat down together for our nightly Bible reading before bed. I opened my Bible to Exodus 16, where we left off, and began to read about the Israelites crying out for food in the desert. God caused manna to come down from heaven each night with the dew and cover the ground each morning. In a way, a special kind of bread rained down from heaven for them. I laughed and told them, "Hey! It was cloudy with a chance of manna!" Flint's invention in the movie was fantastic but dangerous. However, God's provision was perfect. The food came down gently, with the dew, and the leftovers melted away in the heat of the sun. The kids loved the story.

Tonight, I decided to deviate from our normal reading and jump ahead to John 6:30-59. I especially focused on verses 47-51:

"I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

I explained to the kids that, while wonderful, the manna in the desert was still just food. People who ate it still died. However, the manna served as a picture of Jesus, the true Bread from Heaven, the Bread of Life. I told them that Jesus did not really mean that people had to eat him in order to live. Instead, He meant that He had to die and that following Him would satisfy our greatest need - the need for salvation from our sins. If we follow Jesus and accept his sacrifice, then we can have everlasting life - not that we will never die, but that we can live in heaven with Him forever after we die.

At first, I worried that the comparison might confuse the kids, but Hannah and Ben seemed to understand it. Hannah's eyes sparkled with excitement as she connected the ideas in her mind, and, though Ben appeared less focused, he correctly answered a few questions I asked him about the Bible story.

I intended to return to Exodus tomorrow night, but I stumbled across one more lesson centered around manna - Psalm 78. It explains the many signs and miracles God performed throughout Israel's history and details their rebellion and lack of trust in him. The writer of the Psalm encourages the reader to listen carefully and learn from the story, trusting in God and following Him instead of rebelling. Now that I think about it, I believe we will have one more night in our "Cloudy With a Chance of Manna" Bible series after all.