Bread on the Ground

Five-minute object lesson

Prop: a small cracker or piece of bread

Hold up a small cracker or piece of bread. In about five minutes, tell the class this: God feeds his people with manna each morning and teaches them to trust him for today. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with Bread on the Ground?” Let two children answer. Then read Matthew 6:11 together: “Give us today our daily bread.” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.

Story script

After the sea, the wilderness was hungry. The people grumbled. “We had food in Egypt,” they said, forgetting how hard Egypt had been. God heard the grumbling and still answered with kindness.

In the morning, thin flakes covered the ground like frost. The people asked, “What is it?” That question became its name: manna. It tasted like wafers made with honey. They were to gather only enough for the day. If they hoarded it, it spoiled. On the day before Sabbath, they gathered twice as much, and that extra did not spoil, so they could rest.

Every sunrise was a lesson. God knew about breakfast. He did not drop a year’s worth of bread at once, because he wanted his children to look for him again tomorrow.

You do not have to carry every tomorrow on your pillow tonight. Ask for today’s bread — today’s patience, today’s courage, today’s meal — and trust God to be awake before you are.

Open the bedtime version