Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
-John 6:35

If I weren't writing to you, if you and I were having a face-to-face conversation about these words that Jesus says, I would ask: what do you suppose he meant?

Right now, as I write this little devotion, my stomach is rumbling, and I'm wondering if I can hold out for another hour before lunch. I'm sure you've been hungry a few times yourself. And when I leave the church office this morning, I won't have to go very far before I see someone for whom hunger is a real problem, not just a pesky annoyance. In our neighborhoods and around the world are plenty of people who starve - whether they believe in Jesus or not.

So what was he saying, anyway?

Sure - you'd tell me it's a metaphor. He wasn't really saying I'd never need to eat again, he's talking about something more spiritual. And I'd say to you, okay, but I'm still wondering: a metaphor for what?

Does it mean that once we decide to be a disciple of Jesus, we never doubt again?
Does it mean that once we experience God's love, we never feel loneliness again?
Does it mean that, post-Jesus, we're free from those difficult questions, that we're done with anxiety, that we're guaranteed to never struggle with our faith again?

It would be nice if it worked that way... but to tell you the truth, I don't know of any Christian who describes their life in that way. I'm sure I don't. I doubt that you do, either.

Maybe what Jesus is trying to tell us is that his love for us is enough to see us through even the darkest moments in our lives. Jesus' love doesn't remove those dark moments - remember, this is the same Jesus that didn't try to escape crucifixion. But Jesus doesn't leave us to face those moments alone. Jesus is always present with us, and constantly reaches out to us with God's grace. Trusting in Jesus doesn't mean that we never have a sense of emptiness... it just means that we have faith in One whom we trust can fill the void - if not with easy solutions, then with grace. Or at least that's one way of looking at it.

What's this bread of life? What could it possibly mean to you to never be hungry, to never be thirsty? I don't just ask this question for the fun of it, or to try and get you to respond in some particular way. I really do think it's a good question to ask yourself from time to time. What's the hunger and the thirst in my life that Jesus can fill? How does Jesus care for me?