Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. — Ecclesiastes 11:1
My mind goes back to 1986. One October evening, my wife and I went for a walk along the beach. The seagulls were there, and I was breaking off pieces of stale bread and tossing them in the air. The gulls wheeled and dived, screaming at each other, as they caught each piece in midair.
Afterwards, my wife said to me, "If you should die, this is how I will always remember you, here with the seagulls."
Why would we cast our bread upon the waters? Pretty simple: You can’t keep it. It molds; it spoils; it dries out. Who wants stale bread? Better to give away what we have when we still have strength to give.
It’s a reckless thing, really. Giving. Giving away. Giving up. Letting go.
Upon the waters, we cast our bread. Like throwing crumbs in the air, the bread is soon gone. It disappears and we cannot bring it back.
That is the beauty of all of this. When we give our lives away, we cannot go and retrieve what we have surrendered. Everything we give away is now in Other Hands.
The verse says, "many days." You may have given, and given, and given. I suspect you probably now have forgotten most of what you’ve given away. But there is Someone who remembers.
How can bread cast upon waters come back to us? We all know the answer. It cannot. It’s impossible. It would take a miracle.
But then again, that’s what you and I signed up for.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
Dwight Clough is the author of four Christian books and is an active member of Lake City Church in Madison. This devotional is also available via email and you may review the archives back to 2002. To contact Dwight or Kim, use their contact form. You may also support their ministry.