“Eat What I Shall Give You” by Melanie Rigney

“Eat What I Shall Give You” by Melanie Rigney

Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin

The Lord GOD said to me: As for you, son of man, obey me when I speak to you: be not rebellious like this house of rebellion, but open your mouth and eat what I shall give you. (Ezekiel 2:18)

How sweet to my taste is your promise! (Psalm 119:103a)

He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-3)

Piety

The bitter with the sweet, the sour with the honied—God, help me to savor it all.

Study

Weeknight supper was predictable in the Rigney household: pork cutlets on Mondays; hamburger casserole on Tuesdays; beef stew or pot roast on Wednesdays; some sort of chicken on Thursdays; and Fridays, creamed salmon on toast, or some other fish. When my siblings and I got into our teens and had after-school activities, we did our best to be out on Monday nights—and to be home Friday nights. Our mother wasn’t an inspired cook, but she did fish better than anyone else I’ve ever known.

But if you did happen to be home on Monday night, there was no making a grilled cheese sandwich or anything else for yourself. You were going to eat those awful pork cutlets. You didn’t have to like them, but you were going to eat them because that’s what was served.

God’s kind of the same way. Not every day of our lives brings the food we like. It may bring sorrow or disappointment or loss. It may bring joy and bliss and wonder. Accepting what God offers, confident in the Lord’s plan, is really, really hard sometimes. But we submit and put ourselves into His hands, believing He knows better than we do the food that will sustain us for the journey.

Action

Journal about your least-favorite meal from childhood and what eating it taught you.