O Bread of Life from Heaven, ELW 480
1 O bread of life from heaven,
O food to pilgrims given,
O manna from above: feed with the blessed sweetness of your divine completeness the souls that want and need your love.
2 O fount of grace redeeming,
O river ever streaming from Jesus' wounded side: come now, your love bestowing on thirsting souls, and flowing till all are fully satisfied.
3 We love you, Jesus, tender, in all your hidden splendor within these means of grace.
Oh, let the veil be riven, and our clear eye in heaven behold your glory face to face.
Devotion
God's divine completeness. How often do we think of God as complete? Not complete as in finished (there is no more to do), but complete as in ultimately whole and needing nothing else. Do we think of God as having everything that God needs? Talk about a gift-giving challenge. What do you get for a God that has it all? Well, pretty much, nothing. God is the great giver. God gives gifts freely and abundantly.
We might be able to desire manna and the bread of life like the hymn sings, but in the end, these gifts are gifts from God. They are given freely. They are given to us. Our desire for them might be extreme and fervent. We might even try to earn them, but our only effort in them will be in realizing that we have already received them.
Prayer
God of wholeness, we thank you for what you have done and continue to do in our lives. We thank you for the bread of life, which feeds us daily. Amen.