Do you like hot, fresh-from–the-oven bread? Our family enjoys cooking together and when a school holiday grants us some extra time, we make cinnamon rolls. Our kitchen feels warm and cozy and the fragrance of cinnamon and baking bread snake through the house. Powdered sugar dusts the countertops as we stir up sweet icing that drips from the cinnamon rolls onto our fingers. Yum! We don’t discriminate, though. We like bread of all kinds—garlic bread with pasta, sourdough bread for paninis, cornbread with soup, and hot tortillias for soft tacos. These carbs sustain us while we run, swim, bike, dance, and play baseball. Veggies alone don’t cut it and who would choose broccoli over a piece of hot, buttered bread? Jesus knew there was something special, something essential, about bread. In John 6:48-51, Jesus describes himself as the bread of life:

“I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Honestly, bread is not something I spend a lot of time thinking about, yet not a day goes by without my consuming it in some form: toast for breakfast, a sandwich at lunch, or rolls at dinner. It is a staple in my diet. I can’t do without it. Jesus wants to be a staple too, the staple. Jesus promises more than energy to get through the day; He promises life, to be living bread which a man may eat and not die. So how’s your diet? Are you a Bread-eater? Does He sustain you?  Are you feeding on Him or is your stomach empty and growling? Pull up a chair. There’s room at the table for you.