The Pentateuch readings these past weeks have detailed the travels of Israel from Egypt into the promised land. In today’s reading from the Book of Numbers, the Hebrews complain bitterly to Moses about the loss of “the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” “We see nothing before us but this manna,” they shout. In utter frustration, Moses complains to God: “Why do you treat your servant so badly.”
No doubt many of us have shouted to God about our lot in life….loss of health or job, frustration at the pain inflicted by family members, co-workers, neighbors, friends. “I can’t take any more…when will all this end?” we may say to the Lord. The truth is that God’s love for the Israelites was pretty intense, even ferocious. And God trusted Moses with the herculean task of bringing his people into freedom.
Can I consider the possibility that God loves me with equal intensity? That God entrusts me with overwhelming situations which may in the end bring freedom, possibility, new life? How is it just today that God invites me to hand over my life, to “let go and let God”?
—The Jesuit Prayer Team