Sifting Gold
December 13, 2023
“Sifting Gold”
I sink deep,
to my knees I fall.
You’re before me,
above me,
for me
to save me.
A cross.
A sinner’s tree.
My sinner’s tree.
But He hung.
So I cry out…
asking,
needing,
begging…
for bread.
A bite of love,
safety,
comfort,
peace,
calm in the storm.
The Heavens open up.
But down falls manna.
It’s not bread.
It’s not whole.
It’s not what my lips begged.
What can I do with this?
I don’t have the other pieces,
the other ingredients.
My eyes well up.Grief gripped,
my already shattered heart.
I look up…
hoping,
wishing,
praying His hand would be there…
extended,
palm open,
with bread.
But the Heavens were closed.
I scooped up the manna.Grain.
Like sand it spilled through my fingers.
Damp with tears.
But little did I know,
I was sifting gold.
He knew.
Only Abba knew…
The other pieces were within me.
Bread was a bake away.
He was waiting for me to realize,
that little did I know,
I was sifting gold.
I wrote this poem in December of last year through tears. But even in the feelings of heartache and emptiness, part of me knew that the Lord had given me exactly what I needed in that season. I didn’t have the eyes to see it then, but the peace in His provision to cover every part of my life was evident. Recently, when I randomly flipped to this poem in an old journal, I knew God was reminding me that He sees me and shepherds me, despite my feelings of uncertainty in the midst of changes that come naturally with life. I hope these words encourage you of the faithful sovereignty of the Lord’s plan for your life like they did me.
“Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from Heaven for you…’ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, ‘This evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt…’ In the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated, there were fine flakes on the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, ‘What is it?’ because they didn’t know what it was… The house of Israel named the substance manna. It resembled coriander seed, was white, and tasted like wafers made with honey. Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: “Two quarts of it are to be preserved throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt…”’ The Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to an inhabited land” (Exodus 16: 4, 6, 13-15, 31-32, 35).
“Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, equip you with everything good to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13: 20-21).
The Israelites ate manna for forty years in the wilderness. God stopped providing manna when the Israelites reached the Promised Land and were fed by the produce of the Promised Land. Manna seemed unknown, and looked pointless and as minute as frost on the ground. But God knew what He was doing– nourishing His people with the reminder that He alone brought them out of Egypt. Nourishing His people with the truth that He provides in order to fulfill His promises in His perfect timing.
What is the manna in your life? How is God perfectly providing for you and equipping you in this season as He leads you further from bondage and into all of His promises?
“Manna (After All These Years)” by Chris Renzema →