Imagery in community

Todays passage in Exodus 16:2-15 we have a lot of imagery.  I don't want us to get lost and not explore all the imagery so I have done a slide show presentation and I hope it works for you all here too.  We all have a point where everything is stripped away and we cry out to God wondering where God might be.  The Israelites have hit it today.  They have to turn from complaining and crying out and face the wilderness, the uncertainty of where they are headed to, not thinking back to Egypt.  In this turning God promises to provide for them, provide food, meat and bread rains from heaven in the mornings.  They are sustained.  They have to realize they will be sustained first, they have to have faith and they don't face it alone.  They face it within the community that came from Egypt. 

We seem to take great pride in being independent in doing things on our own.  Yet when our cry comes to God we are searching for the community that might sustain us in the wilderness.  The community that complains with us.  The community that will hear our cry and take it to God's heart.  Only when we realize that this is a universal cry will we come to be able to face our own wilderness, yes we face every confrontation in our minds, but we have companions on the journey to listen and help us through.  Who are the people you help through?  Where is the community you rely on?  Evaluate it and feed on it, it is what sustains us with God's help.

Exodus Imagery