May these words of this Peter be like a rock,
not a stumbling block!

Things do get complicated. Between buying a house, and paying for a car, and all the other bills that come with living the good life, it gets so complex. This "good life" always seems just one more raise around the corner, another dollar in the bank.

Kevin thought about all those sweepstakes. He never entered one. Who wins them, anyway? But, boy, could they use money like that right now. He’d always been taught that gambling was wrong, but every time he passed by one of those "Lottery" billboards, he had to wonder what it would be like to win all that money. Not only could they pay their bills, but they’d then have a cushion, just in case a pink slip came his way. Furthermore, they could get some of those things they’d always wanted to have.

With all that money, he could stop watching every penny, and putting Charlotte and the kids through the nightmare of "balance the budget" day. Over the years the rest of the family had learned to stay away from Dad when bills were being paid. He hated being like that! Extra money could really make life a whole lot easier.

Of course, if he did win it big, the Lord would get a hunk of it. He could finally afford to tithe. Hey, if he won big enough, he could give the church the equivalent of a year’s budget and turn around the giving cycle, so that this year’s spending would be last year’s giving. Wouldn’t that be something!! If somehow he ever did buy into the Lottery, and he just happened to win, some real good could come out of it!

Such was the state of Kevin’s mind as he drove home on the freeway. He almost didn’t see the cars ahead of him slow down. Things came to a standstill. "O brother," he thought, "I guess it’ll be a late evening." Then he saw the reason for the tie-up. You couldn’t miss it.

The sky was literally green. It was really strange - sunlight filtering through something like a kaleidoscope of green. He couldn’t figure out what it was. Then something landed on his windshield. He looked at it closely, and realized it was a $100 bill. He shook his head and looked again. Sure enough, that’s what it was.

Another landed, and then another. He let out something between a war-hoot and the cry of an insane man, and jumped out of the car. He started grabbing for as many bills as he could. It was raining money. Folks around him were out of their cars doing the same thing, on both sides of the interstate. It was amazing!

Of course, he wasn’t watching them. His eyes were on the skies. He didn’t even bother to wonder from where it was all coming. A woman nearby yelled out, "It’s like manna from heaven!"... "A miracle!," cried someone else. Kevin said nothing. He just was stuffing his pockets full.

A police car raced by on the berm of the road, but he didn’t even see it. He wiped his chin and the cuff of his shirt came away soaking wet, but he didn’t notice. The stream of money from the sky, this "manna from heaven," slowly started to let up. Then it stopped.

It didn’t take long for all the greenbacks to be picked up. Then everybody just got back in their cars, and waited for traffic to begin moving again. Kevin got behind the wheel, and immediately his mind started racing.
     

Kevin started laughing as hard as he could. He thought about how stupid he’d been. He was probably one of the ones the officer was talking about. "Foaming at the mouth." Had he really looked that ridiculous? Well, he was in good company. He looked at the folks in the cars around him. Some of them were laughing, too.

He turned off the radio and started to think. What was most important to him? Apparently, money and everything it could buy, was pretty high on the list. How did he feel about that? He always thought a Christian was supposed to be a bit different from everybody else.

Was he really any different, when it came right down to it? He foamed at the mouth and chased after the bread, just like all the rest. Pretty ridiculous! What was most important to him, anyway? Had he allowed the things in his life to run it? It gets so complicated! "I guess you figure you can control the things, the stuff money can buy," he thought. "So easily and quickly, though, they come to control you."

What was most important to him, anyway? Certainly, his family should be near the top of the list. They were part of the reason he tried to keep up this standard of living. He wanted them to have the "good life." Was that enough? Was the good life getting in the way?

Yes, you needed your daily bread. Everybody does. Life, though, is more than bread, it’s more than the things that you possess. It’s more than the control you have over something that really has more control over you.

As he sat in his car, waiting for traffic to start moving again, Kevin thought about all of this. He reached into his glove compartment and pulled out a cassette. A friend had once spoken of how he used the time he spent on the road each day to listen to the Bible on tape. So Kevin started doing the same.

Today’s cassette just happened to begin at the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. He listened to it as he waited, hearing it as if for the first time. All those hungry people. What were they worried about, really? A boy had a lunch, and somehow, Jesus made that little bit of food enough for everybody. There was so much more to it all, though, than a few loaves and fishes.

"Yes, God provides everything we need," Kevin thought as he listened, "but that’s not what life is really all about... Those people, they just saw the miracle, they saw loaves and fishes multiply before them. They saw only $100 bills floating down from heaven; something they could grab, and use to get by, and maybe get ahead in this old world. But they didn’t see Jesus. Then he walked away."

Kevin kept on listening to the Bible come alive as he sat. Traffic was still at a standstill. The people in the story found Jesus, the guy who had given them bread, and they were hungry for more. Jesus, though, could see through them to what they really wanted. To him, the things they desired were bogus. Their deeper hunger would never be touched by this stuff. As if for the first time, Kevin heard Jesus talk about "real life," something far greater than the "good life." Jesus said:
      

That was true of his life as a Christian, also. Jesus was just someone to help him get ahead. God provided his daily bread. He was thankful for it, and at mealtime they said thanks, and they went to church to say thanks. He was grateful for his daily bread, the stuff they needed to get by, and maybe even get ahead, every day. Here, though, was something more than mere bread, whether whole wheat, or greenback.

"I am the Bread of Life," Jesus said. Those words came alive as Kevin listened. Here he was, sitting in his car, on a crowded freeway, his pockets stuffed with bogus bread. Jesus spoke to him, in that still, small voice with which God often speaks.
     

see this in short story format

For commentaries consulted, see John.