Our Daily Bread

In 1943, Nazi soldiers herded the citizens of Khatyn into a barn, piled hay around it, and set it on fire, killing all 149 people inside. After the war, Khatyn, in the former Soviet Union, was chosen as the site for a memorial to the more than 600 villages across Belarus that shared a similar fate.

During the last few years of his life, a well-known theology professor in Scotland lost all memory of his past. While remaining cordial to former university colleagues who came to visit, he had no idea that they had taught together and were close friends for many years. But despite his memory loss, he never forgot to say thanks to God.

The name of Larry McMurtry may not be familiar to most people. But to readers of books about the American frontier and small towns of the western US, he is somewhat of an icon. A few years ago he wrote his autobiography in which he wondered about his own future: “I’m now in my sixties, which means that I’m looking at a maximum of about 30 more years of life. Which should I do? Read or write? Though I have now read a lot of books, the range is still green with thousands of potentially interesting books yet unread.”

Joe was dying, and he wanted to make everything right. He was at odds with Bill, who had been one of his best friends. They hadn’t spoken to each other in years. Wanting to resolve the problem, he asked Bill to visit him.

Back in the 1920s, a young girl was placed on an “orphan train” in New York City. She was one of a number of children who were part of a program for relocating unwanted orphans from the big city to small towns in the rural Midwest.

A number of years ago, a government investigation discovered that some truckers were hauling garbage in the same refrigerated trucks that were used to transport food. Part of the problem was that trucks making long trips could not afford to return empty.

When my daughter Lisa arrived for another day of teaching her high school music classes, she found that the students and faculty were grieving. A senior boy had died in a car accident the afternoon before. As Lisa made her way toward her classroom, she saw a student she knew was a Christian, sitting in the cafeteria, crying.

In the early part of this century, a ship was wrecked off the Scilly Isles near the coast of England. The sea had been calm and the weather clear, but the vessel was caught in a treacherous current that slowly lured it off its course. Before the captain and the crew realized what had happened, the ship had crashed onto the rocks.

Adelaide Pollard was planning to go to Africa as a missionary, but at the last minute she was prevented from going because she hadn’t received enough financial support. During a prayer meeting, a dark mood enveloped her. Then the prayer of an elderly woman pierced her darkness: “It’s all right, Lord! It doesn’t matter what You bring into our lives. Just have Your own way with us!” In that moment Adelaide Pollard surrendered to God’s way and found peace.

Don’t have time to eat breakfast? Not even a bowl of cereal or a slice of toast? No problem. Just unwrap a “breakfast bar” made from one of many popular cereal products and eat it on your way to work or school. It may not be the most nourishing meal, but it’s convenient, and that seems to be what people want most today. In the US alone, more than 30,000 new beverage, health, beauty, household, and pet products appeared in just one year. The most popular of them emphasized convenience.